122 [June, 



I have often bred Oharaxes imna and Dolescliallia poJihete from the 

 eg^ in the monsoon, and, although they have been kept quite dry dur- 

 ing the egg, larval and pupal stages, they have all turned out monsoon 

 forms : likewise with two Kallimas that T remember to have bred from 

 the egg. Melanitis leda or is?nene (wet form and dry form respectively 

 are thus dubbed) bred from eggs laid in captivity in the monsoon (and 

 therefore not rained on) have always given the wet-season form leda ; 

 not till the end of the monsoon have they turned out ismene or the 

 dry-season forms. So also with Mycalesis mandosfi and mandntn and 

 mineus: the ocellated forms have all been bred in captivity during the 

 rains, from the egg laid in captivity. So that it is not the rain or direct 

 action of wetting by rain that is the cause of the wet-season form. I 

 think it must be the damp atmosphere generally that influences the form. 

 This would be difiicult to prove, for when the atmosphere is dry it is 

 next to impossible to keep any space with a damp atmosphere without 

 the larvsD getting diseased and dying. It would be possible in a large 

 conservatory like some of those at Kew, &c., but for us to do it is 

 impossible. In Kanara there are as many broods of butterflies as 

 there are sproutings of leaves ; that is, the broods go on in uninter- 

 rupted succession all the year round, except that in the hot weather and 

 in the month of October, the two great leaf-sprouting times of the year, 

 the insects are far more numerous than at other times, because there is 

 such a large quantity of available food in the form of young leaves. 

 Of course this is only to be expected in a country which never has 

 any great drought or excessively dry season or any great cold, and 

 where there are always leaves available. I have a theory based upon 

 experience that it is the amount of moisture imbibed or eaten by the 

 larva that produces the wet-season form so-called. This wet-season 

 form in many of the Pierida (I speak about genera Appias and 

 Catopsilia, as having come within my experience) is the form which 

 has a great amount of black coloration and rather pointed wings 

 (more pointed in this form in Appias any way). Well, I bred many 

 specimens of both these genera {A. taprohana and libi/thea ; C. crocale 

 and ;?^r«72^Ae), and found that when fed upon the young succulent 

 leaves of their food-plants which appear in the hot weather, the re- 

 sultant specimens or imagines are always wet-season forms. Succulent 

 young leaves mean much moisture. In the cold weather, leaves are at 

 their driest and hardest stage, and that is the time all the cold-weather 

 or dry-weather forms are about. 



