LEPIDOPTERA. 



379 



Disi rib nt ion. — 

 Throughout South- 

 ern India. 



Lifeh is I a r y . 

 Eggs art' laid in 

 batches. Larva very 

 variable in colour, 

 greenish or pinkish- 

 brown, with a narrow 

 darker line down the 

 hack and a broader 

 spiracular line which 

 may be yellowish 

 I with darker 

 above or wholly 

 darker. Pupation in 

 soil. Lif eh i st ory 

 \ cry rapid, the whole 

 lif e- c y c 1 e being 

 passed in as short a 

 space as three weeks, 

 so that in suitable 

 circumstances the in- 

 crease is very rapid 

 and the caterpillars 

 are found in swarms. 

 Foodplants. — Lu- 

 cerne, indigo, onions, 

 chillies, gingelly, 



cowpea, brinjal, radish, Amaranthus. Polyphagous ; probably on 



almost any low-growing plant. Saiil to be destructive to cotton 



in Egypt but not as yet found on cotton in India. 



Status. — Occasionally a bad pest particularly ol lucerne and 



indigo, where these are grown, but usually not a serious pest in 



Southern India. 



Fig. 240. — Laphygma exigua, moth and larva. 

 The -mailer outline figures shovi the natural 

 . i Larva after Spuler.) 



SESAMIA INFERENS, Wlk. (PLATE JCXI.) 



Leucania inferens, Wlk.. Cat. IX. 105 (1856); Hmpsn., Faun. Ind. 

 Moths, II, 284, fig. 153. 



Sesamia inferens, Hmpsn., Cat. Phal., IX. 327 32s. f, [44. 



Nonagria uniformis [Ne< Ddgn.), I.M.X.. V, [78; Lefroy, Ent. 

 Mem. Agri. Dept., Ind.. 1. [76, I. 51 (part). 



Distribution. — Throughout Southern India. 



