122 LEPIDOPTERA INDIOA. 
Habits slow. Went into chrysalis 3lst August. Chrysalis (pendule) green, with 
a little brown fascia on either side. Imago emerged 7th September” (From 
original M8.) 
Notes on Hasits or Imaco.—In the Western Himalayas ‘these insects 
inhabit dark, thickly shaded, gloomy hill-slopes clad with oak (Quercus incana) and 
creel (Pinus longifolia). On very hot days, they may be seen flying with a short 
jerky flight in the shade of the trees, just within the line of sunlight. On such days 
it 1s curious, as you tread the forest path, to see it rise suddenly at your feet, and 
disappear as quickly withm a yard. On the wing it is of course plainly seen, 
except in very dark corners, but the moment it settles among the dry spikes of the 
pines, and the brown scanty vegetation which struggles for bare existence under 
these trees, it is lost, and it requires much experience of its ways and keen eyes to 
find it lying within a foot or two of your path. The genus Melanitis mimics on the 
underside of the wings many species of fungi, and this, with the sober colouring of 
the upperside, increases the difficulty of finding the insect amid the débris of the 
forest ; the underside is very variable, scarcely two being exactly alike, and this 
may arise from the fact that they mimic the fungus most common at the time and 
place of flight”? (Rev. J. H. Hocking, Sci. Gossip, 1882, 271). In Southern India 
‘« these are insects of the dusk, coming out after the sun is down, and dancing round 
the roots of trees in company, after the manner of fairies. A little later they come 
out of their haunts and fly straight up into the air as far as the eye can follow them. 
They are thirsty creatures, and will gather in numbers where water has been spilt 
on the ground, but they prefer whiskey. I found the larve feeding on grass; the 
larvee is difficult to find, being a night feeder and very shy. As the species of grass 
on which it feeds grows during the monsoon only, except where there is water, this 
species is in season all the latter part of the rainy season, and in some places for a 
short time they almost jostle each other for room. About October, when vegetation 
is drying up, it gives place to the form Ismene. I have noticed it on alighting fall 
over on its side until it was almost horizontal, which very much enhanced its like- 
ness to a dead leaf. In Guzerat and Bombay we have reared the larva on Grass. 
In Karwar we found it during August and September on Rice. It is very shy, 
resting by day on the underside of a blade and feeding by night” (EH. H. Aitken, 
Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 1886, 129, id. 1890, p. 267). ‘‘ Larva and perfect 
insect very common on the Western Coast amongst the long grass. The perfect 
insect affects dark places during the day time. It seems to me to migrate, and from 
the mountains to below sometimes in great numbers. I have traced them on the 
move from 2000 feet high to the sea coast” (S. N. Ward MS. Notes). 
Of our illustrations of this species plate 122 represents the male and female, and 
lary and pupx of the wet-season brood, fig. 1 being the larva and pupa reared in 
