PLUME-MOTHS OF CEYLON. 



21 



Deuterocopus ritsem^e, Wlsm. %J J ^ A <^^° \^*6 ' * * 



Notes Leyden Mus., VI., 243. ~$vv^ 6 } ii&h~d*. ' 



Distribution . — Galle , Per adeniy a. 



Outside of Ceylon, it has hitherto only been recorded from Java. 



Early Stages.— Examples were bred from pupae found suspended 

 anally from the upper surface of leaves of Leea sambucina, which is 

 evidently the food plant. On the same bush I found a larva feeding 

 inside an unopened flower bud ; it appeared exactly similar to that 

 of rubrodactylus, except in wanting the terminal red suffusion ; 

 unfortunately I failed to rear it. 



Observation.— The most brightly coloured Ceylon specimens agree, 

 exactly with Lord Walsingham's description of D. ritsemce, except 

 that the bands on the posterior tibiae are pale yellow instead of being 

 white as there described. 



SPHEN ARCHES, Meyr. 

 Sphenarches Caffer, Zell. 



Caffer.—Zefter, Linn. Ent., VI., 348 ; Zell., Lep. Micropt. Caffr., l-kw^ , %JT. 

 p. 1 18 ; Wlk. , Cat, XXX. , 934 ; Wlsm. , T. E. S. , 1881 , 279 ; Meyr. , few. 

 T. E. S., 1887, 268 ; Wlsm., Indian Mus. Notes, II., 20 (figures) ; > ? ^ 

 Cotes, 1. c. 163 ; Wlsm., P. Z. S., 1897, 56 ; Meyr. Fauna Geogr. C&~^«0 

 Maldives, I., ii., 125 ; Lefroy, Mem. Agric. India Entom., I., 220. 



Anisodactylus.— Wlk., Cat. XXX., 934; Moore, Lep. Ceylon, 

 III., 528 ; Swinh., Cat. Moths India, p. 668. 



Diffusalis.— Wlk., Cat. XXX., 945. 



W alkeri.— Wlsm., T. E. S., 1881, 279. 



Synophrtjs.— Meyr., T. E. S., 1886, 17. 



Distribution.— Colombo, Jaffna, Kegalla, Galle, Weligama, 

 Hambantota, Trincomalee, Peradeniya, Maskeliya, Diyatalawa, 

 Madulsima, Alutnuwara. 



Widely distributed in the low-country, but only moderately 

 common as a rule. Mr. W. Vaughan, however, reports it as 

 extremely abundant at Alutnuwara in January, 1908. In India it 

 sometimes attains the status of a pest on cultivated Cucurbitaceae, 

 and it has also been recorded as damaging Dolichos lablab. 



Its distribution extends from Africa through India to Burma, 

 Australia, and Japan. It is the only plume moth as yet recorded 

 from the Maldives. 



Early Stages. — A short description of a larva, about half-grown, 

 reads — " Head yellow. Other segments pale brownish yellow. 

 A narrow dorsal, latero-dorsal, and spiracular reddish stripe. Legs 

 X>ale yellow, prolegs and claspers dark. Hairs white, except the 

 short clubbed hairs which are black." 



I have found the larva on Averrhoa bilimbi ("Bilimbi") at Galle, 

 and on the flowers of Biophyhnn sensitivum at Madulsima, so that 



