THi: COMMON BUTTERFUE^i OF THE I'LAISS OF INDIA, (i lit- 

 is the honit^ of this butterny. Such, at least, was the place where 

 the Hi'f^t caterpillars were found. Such is the best huuting f^rouud. 

 surely ; the best place to find them at all times, and to catch the 

 buttertlies. However, Ashok is not the only foodplant. It is pro- 

 bable, as happens with most lycasnids the larvae of which ai-e always 

 attended by ants, that the main attraction or requisite is the pre- 

 sence of these protectors. Caterpillars have been thus found on 

 Coinbretum evtensiinl and Torminalia panicnlata ; both belonging 

 to the family Comhretacea- . Saraca is a genus of Le^juminosece. The 

 butterfly is a fairly strong flier but keeps more or less to the lower- 

 vegetation and small trees in the jitngles. It does not fly far at one 

 time and rests with it wings closed over the back. It has been re- 

 corded from Sikkim ; Bengal : Orissa ; Kanara on the Western Ghats 

 in Bombay ; Assam ; Burma ; Tenasserim ; the Andamans ; extend- 

 ing into the Malaj'an Sub-region as far as New^ Guinea. 



10. Genus — Everes, 



This is a group of tive distinct species covering the whole world except 

 South America and the Pacific Islands. In India there are three recognised 

 species of which only Eveirs argiades concerns ns here. This particular 

 butterfly is found in North America, all through Central and Southern 

 Europe except in Britain and Spain : practically throughout Asia except in 

 the extreme north ; throughout the Malayan Sub-region to Australia and, in 

 the limits of British India, throughout India ; Ceylon ; Assam ; Burma ; 

 Tenasserim : the Nicobars. 



147. Everes argiades, PaUas. A very variable form especially in the colouring 

 on the upperside in the female. Male. Upperside : violet of lighter or darker 

 shade. Fore wing : a terminal edging of brown of varying width and an 

 obscure, anticiliary, black line ; costa generally with a very narrow line of 

 brown ; cilia brown at base, white outwardly. Hind wing : costal margin 

 more or less broadly brown, this brown edging continued in some specimens 

 down the termen to the tornal angle, in others only for a short distance 

 or not at all ; subterminal, black spots in the posterior three or four inter- 

 spaces, the one in interspace 2 largest, the two in interspace 1 minute, 

 sometimes geminate ; generally the spots are outwardly edged very narrowly 

 with white ; finally an anticiliary slender black lijie much more prominent 

 than on the fore wing ; tail black tipped with white. Underside : white to 

 brownish-grey, the markings sometimes prominent, very often pale and 

 faint, those constituting the discal bands on both fore and hind wings 

 round and black, or transverse, linear and pale brownish. Fore wing : a 

 short transverse line on the discocellulars : a transverse discal row of spots 

 followed by an inner and an outer subterminal maculate band which may be 

 slender and well marked or with the inner band broad and each spot com- 

 posing it diffuse ; finally, an anticiliary, very slender, black line. Hind- 

 wing : a transverse, subbasal series of two, sometimes three, black spots ; 

 a slender, short, brownish line on the discocellulars ; a transverse, discal, 

 bisinuate series of black spots followed by a somewhat obscure, postdiscal, 

 transverse series of black or pale brownish lunnles, a subterminal series of 

 black spots and a slender, anticiliary, black line ; the subterminal portions 

 of interspaces 2 and 3, sometimes of 4 and 5 also, that lie between post- 

 discal series of lunules and the outer edge of the subterminal row of spots 

 uchraceous yellow, the spots themselves in interspaces 12 and 3 much larger 



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