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upper parts of the just expanding leaves, or less freely the tip of the 

 stem. When a caterpillar on a rapidly growing shoot has found food 

 in a pair of leaves for some days during which growth has carried the 

 other softer parts far beyond ; it does not wander up the shoot, but 

 attacks the stem close at hand and eats the surface into small pits, 

 which turn black; at times the shoot may be so much eaten as to 

 break or to die above the place. 



The caterpillar attains a length of 2,25 cm., with a maximum 

 width forward of about 7 mm. The body is somewhat flattened 

 towards the tail. The legs are entirely hidden by the overlapping 

 sides, and the head is similarly hidden. The colour of the caterpillar 

 is a rather light leaf-green with a pair of magenta markings, or with 

 two pairs, on the back near the middle, the ground colour rather 

 yellowish-green between them. Towards the head and the tail the 

 green colour darkens a very little. And near to the tail are two 

 retractile processes, withdrawn more often than exserted, very small 

 and white, with papillae. 



Ants commonly run over the caterpillars seeking for something 

 that they cannot find. As formic acid is present in the caterpillars 

 of some allied lepidoptera, it might possibly be a smell of this which 

 attracts them ; but evidence is lacking. 



When the caterpillar is mature, it attaches itself to the stem and 

 pupates, forming a chrysalis buff over the wings and along a broad 

 streak down the back, elsewhere of the brightest green. The tail is 

 very broad. 



The butterfly has dark orange wings with a black border, and 

 the hinder are provided with a broadish tail which is pale towards 

 the extremity, and curves out of the plane of the wing. The black 

 border runs from the middle of the anterior rounded edge of the 

 forewing to the posterior angle of the hinder wing. Further the 

 hind wings are slightly suffused with black. Below the wings are of 

 an orange ochre, with a faint line across them parallel to the outer 

 margins. The diameter across the expanded wings is 5 cm. It is 

 figured in Distant's Rhopalocera Malayana (1882-86), plate xxxix., 

 figure 2. 



Tagiades gana feeds on the mature leaves of D. alata, ^.xxdhdiS 

 also been observed on D. cirrhosa, Lour. It cuts into the leaf until it 

 can fold over a piece of it and so manufactures with a little silk a 

 covering for itself; or sometimes it fastens two leaves together. 

 From within its covering it feeds on the foliage, making a new case 

 as often as may be necessary. It is smooth skinned and narrow 

 behind the head, which is bilobsd behind. The chrysalis is hazel 

 coloured, and rests in the last leaf-wrapping that the caterpillar has 

 constructed. 



The butterfly which is figured in Distant's Rhopalocera Malayana 

 (1882-86), on plate xxiv, figure 7, is 9 cm. across the wings. These 



