SI NYMPIIALin.K. DANAIN.^. DANAIS. 



" Common ia Kulu ; the fust biooJ appears in June, then a succession of brootls from August 

 throughout the autumn. I fouml a great number of the larvce of this insect whilst marching 

 through the Sialkot District in May. They were on that species of Ejiphorbium , so common on 

 sandy ground in the Punjab. I bred a lot, but all that I can now remember is that they emerge 

 from tiie pupa on the average in about twelve days. I first saw this insect while travelling 

 through South Persia many years ago. I met with a few at Khanch Zeenon, 32 miles south 

 of Shiraz, early in April, and at D.isht-i-arjun, a grassy plain surrounded by mountains a few 

 miles further on, elevation nearly 6,000 feet, they were out on the banks of a small river in 

 swarms during six hours that I halted there. I must have seen some thousands ; they were all 

 fresh from the chrysalis, and the surrounding herbage was covered with these pupa;, and with 

 newly emerged insects." 



The following description of the caterpillar and chrysalis of D, chrysifpus is taken from 

 a paper by Mrs. T. Vernon WoUaston in the Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., fifth series, vol. iii, 

 p. 221 (1879). 



" The caterpillar of this Danais is rather more than an inch and a half in length, and of 

 a delicate French grey, each segment being ornamented with five black transverse lines, the 

 second and third ones of which are somewhat broader, and enclose too large yellow transverse 

 patches. There is a yellow spiracle-line very much interrupted, the skin being puckered, 

 and the spiracles themselves scarcely visible. The head has three broad, transverse, arched, 

 black lines, the anterior one of which encloses a yellow space, bordered in front by a straight 

 basal line. The third, sixth, and last segments are each furnished with a pair of conspicuous 

 dark retractile [?] horns, the anterior pair of which are almost twice the length of the others. 

 When fully fed, it suspends itself by its tail, and turns into an obtuse semi-transparent 

 chrysalis, beautifully marked with small golden spots, placed elliptically round the head, and 

 with a black, raised, semi-circular line near the tail, the posterior edge of which is of x 

 brilliant gold ; there is also a minute golden spot about the position of the centre of the 

 enclosed wings. These golden markings, however, disappear by the absorption of the fluids, as 

 the enclosed insect approaches maturity." 



The caterpillar feeds in India on Calotroph gigantea (Lang) ; Asckpias curasavica (Moore). 

 The chrysalides in Danais cluysippiis are dichroic, some being bright green, and others pale 

 pinkish, wax-white, but Mr. Wood-Mason has ascertained that this difference in colour is not 

 sexual, males and females being produced indifferently from green and pink chrysalides, and 

 he considers that we here have to do with an instance of the same animal at the same stage of 

 its development being protected by its resemblance to twc different parts of the vegetable or. 

 ganism on which it feeds and resides, namely, the leaves and the blossoms, the green chrysalises 

 matching green leaves, and the pink ones being of a colour likely to be mistaken by birds, 

 reptiles, and predaceous insects for a blossom. 



The figures, taken from Calcutta specimens in the Indian Musuem, Calcutta, shows the 

 upperside of a male on the left and female on the right. 



29. Danais alCippUS, Cramer. 



Paptlio alcippus, Cramer, Pap. Ex , vol. ii, pi. cxxvii, figs. E, F (1777) ; Fabricius, Ent. Syst., vol. iii, pt. i, 

 p. 50, n. 155(1793); Herbst, Pap., pi. civ, figs. 5, 6(1794); Euplcea alcippc, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett., 

 p. 15 (1816) ; Oohsenh., pi. iv, p 120 ; Danais alcippe, Godart, Enc. Mdth., vol. ix, p. 18S, n. 39 (1819), 



Habitat: Plains of North- West India, and Rangoon. 



Expanse : 2*9 to 3*5 inches. 



Description : This species differs from D. chrysippus in the hinJwhig on both the upper 

 and undersides being more or less, particularly in the middle of the wing, suffused with pure 

 white. This character is very varied in different specimens, both in uniformity and extent ; 

 in some, it covers the whole of the middle of the wing : in others it is confined to the area 

 below the cell only, and again in others, it is streaked and sullied with fulvous. 



