28 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
settled on wet patches on the roads. It is then very easy to 
approach and capture. The female is rarer, and is usually 
seen flying fast and straight ; it, however, stops at flowers 
oceasionally. I once saw a large number at the blossom of 
Acacia cxsia while travelling in the coach from Kegalla to 
Polgabawela. 
Localities: Galle, Kandy, Wellawaya, Nuwara_ Eliya. 
* Ratnapura ” (F. M. Mackwood). 
53. CIRROCHROA LANKA; Cirrochroa thais lanka, K—Moore 
separates it into thais, lanka, and cognata, and De Niceville 
added swinhai. 
It is very questionable whether our Ceylon specimens are 
distinct from the South Indian thais. Bingham says: “ After 
carefully examining a long series of specimens from Southern 
India and Ceylon, I am quite unable to find any constant 
characters that would serve to distinguish C. lanka, Moore, 
from C. thats, Fabr.”’ 
He entirely ignores cognata and swinhac. 
Personally I agree with him that there is only one species 
in Ceylon. The more specimens I examine, the greater 
difficulty I find in splitting up the species. It is exceedingly 
variable, but all yarieties seem to grade. 
The males can be usually distinguished by the entirely 
different shape of the fore wings. They also have a sex-mark, 
the terminal half of veins 5, 6, and 7 being coloured black, 
with a narrow yellow margin of spécialized scales. 
On one occasion, in November, I was walking from Wella- 
waya to Koslanda, and on the first five miles of the road there 
were many thousands of the males settled on the wet patches. 
Both sexes often settle at flowers, but I have not found it 
easy to catch perfect females. 
About twelve years ago I found a small tree on Eadella 
estate, Polgahawela, entirely defoliated by the larve. I 
collected a few pupx, but they had evidently been starved, 
as all hatched out dwarfed or deformed. 
T have notes of its occurrence in every month at Haldum- 
mulla, but it is only plentiful in the flights. 
Other localities : Galle, Kegalla, Wellawaya, Anuradhapura, 
Trincomalee, &c. ‘‘ Mataleand Ratnapura” (F.M. Mackwood). 
