)06.] 123 



Another thing which is worth noting is that the time occupied from 

 egg to imago is much shorter in the case of the young-leaf fed h\rva than 

 in the one that is reared on hard, dry leaves. The quickest growth I 

 have ever noticed was that of Atella alcippe and phalanta, which only 

 took 13 days from egg to imago. Another thing that is usually the 

 case also, is that the cold-weather forms, or those resulting from dry- 

 leaf fed larvse, are larger than those resulting from larvae fed on young, 

 wet leaves ; it seems, therefore, that the slower the larval growth 

 (always given plenty of food, and fresh), the larger the imago Of 

 course the wet-season or succulent leaf-fed larvae always produce darker 

 imagines ; so that the larger specimens are nearly always, I might say 

 always, lighter in colour than the smaller. Starving larvae is sometimes 

 productive of curious results, as, in one skipper I bred, and the larva 

 of which I starved, the resultant imago, or imagines, for there were 

 several (it was a Parnara) had only one of the semi-hyaline marks show- 

 ing or present on the fore-wing, and w'as half the size it should have 

 been ; so that de Niceville, of Calcutta, made a separate species of it 

 under the name oi j^hilotas, de Xiceville. I have no opportunity now 

 of breeding and trying experiments ; neither, I am afraid, have I a 

 chance of sending Poulton series of the butterflies he wants ; if I get 

 back to Kanara, then I shall be able to send them to him. One could 

 write reams on seasonable dimorphism and the effect it shows in 

 different species. For it is a curious fact that in species of the same 

 genus, the line the differences take between the two forms are very 

 different. For example, in Melanitis the "rains" form of leda ?ix\di 

 aswa show a finely vermiculated surface without a sign of the midrib 

 marking, wdiereas, in M. gohliala, the wet form only differs from the 

 dry in having more " ink " underneath. Whereas Kallima shows the 

 midrib on the under-side in wet and dry forms, Melanitis leda and 

 aswa show no signs of it in the wet forms ; whereas the wet forms of 

 Kallima and Melanitis are darkest on the under-side ; and though 

 darker on the upper-side in the wet form, Junonia asterie always is 

 lightest in that form beneath. Ocellation of the under-side seems 

 always, without exception, to be an effect of moisture ; the wet form 

 of Junonia asterie^ for example, is abundantly ocellated, whereas the 

 dry-season form is quite plain, wnth a well-defined midrib. 



There is a curious thing in connection with Dolesoliallia ipolihete 

 which may be interesting, and that is, whereas the male is very active, 

 and continually found perching on leaves near the tops of trees, very 

 often in the open, the female is hardly over seen out of thick vegeta- 

 tion and dark places ; in fact only one female is seen for a dozen or 



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