190 LYCAENIDZ. TARUCUS, 
blackish dorsal line extending down the whole length of the body, with a double subdorsal 
series of indistinct black specks ; the head is rounded, the thorax slightly humped, the pupa 
throughout quite smooth. 
Mrs. Wylly has sent me a very interesting note on the behaviour of the “ large common 
black ants of Indian gardens and houses” to the larva of 7. theophrastus. In this account, after 
describing the special organs possessed by these larvae, she relates the way the ants attend 
the caterpillars till they are full-grown, when the ants drive them down the stem of the tree 
which they have hitherto inhabited into a temporary nest the ants have set up at the foot of 
the tree, where on opening the nest “ you will see some hundreds of larve and pupz in all 
stages of development arranged ina broad and even band all round the trunk, and lightly 
covered with earth.” The perfect insects emerge in this nest, and after drying their wings are 
allowed to fly away unmolested. 
I have only to add that it seems highly improbable to me that a species which is obviously 
so variable, and whose variations are not confined to well-defined regions, can be split up into 
numerous distinct species as Mr. Butler evidently thinks it can. The full number of these 
so-called new species has not apparently been reached, as Mr. Butler says that Colonel 
Swinhoe’s specimens “ represent two or more new species,” of which he describes one.* The 
certain proof of the identity of several forms in one species is, however, to be found only in 
breeding the species from the egg at all seasons of the year throughout the country ; and 
entomologists who would make a serious attempt to solve this question should experiment in 
this direction, and, as the species is wide-spread and its food plant (Zzyphus) is also easily acces- 
sible, they should have no difficulty in doing so. 
753. Tarucus nara, Kollar. 
Lycena nara, Kollar, Hiigel’s Kaschmir, vol. iv, pt. 2, p. 421, n. 6 (1848) ; Tarucus nara, Butler, Proc. Zool | 
Soc. Lond., 1881, p. 606, n. 20; idem, id., 1886, p. 366,n. 42; idem, id, Ann, and Mag. of Nat. Hist., sixth 
series, vol. i, p. 147, n. 47 (1888) ; id., Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1882, p. 245; id., Swinhoe, 1, c., 1884, 
p. 506, n. 22; idem, id., 1885, p. 134, n. 70; idem, id., 1886, p. 427, N. 54. 
Hasitat: Masuri (Xo//ar) ; Campbellpore, Punjab ; Karachi, May and October (Budéler) 5 
N.-W. Himalayas (Afoore) ; Karachi, appears in great plenty at latter end of April and lasts 
until about the middle of August ; Poona, October, December, January, April, and May ; 
Bombay, July to December ; Ahmednuggur, August and September ; Mhow, September to July 
(Swinhoe). 
EXPANSE: 6, 9, ‘95 of an inch (Ad//ar), 
DESCRIPTION: ‘‘ MALE. UPPERSIDE, doth wings shining with violet, with a median black 
dot. UNDERSIDE, doth wings white spotted with black. Aindwing with marginal dots 
sprinkled with greenish-golden. FEMALE. UPPERSIDE, doth wings somewhat fuscous spotted 
with white, powdered with bluish.” UNDERSIDE, otk wings as in the male. 
* Nearly allied to Lycena [Castalius] rosimon, Fabricius, especially on the underside. On the 
UPPERSIDE (of the male), violet-blue with a longish black spot in the middle of each forewing, and 
a narrow border of the same colour on both wings. On the UNDERSIDE of the wings white : 
the forewing with a black streak ascending obliquely from the base towards the costal margin : 
but all the wings with several black spots which are grouped in a band-like manner. Four 
(and sometimes five) of these spots in the outermost row on the hindwing are thickly beset 
with golden green scales. The female differs from the male in being of a dirty brown colour on 
the upperside of the wings on which the white colour of the underside shows through ina spotty 
manner, anda few blue scales are visible at the base of the wings. Whether the hindwing 
was furnished with a slender tail cannot be found out, as the two specimens which we possess 
are somewhat damaged. The abdomen is brown on the back and alternately white and brown on 
the sides : but beneath it is white. The antennz brown with white rings.” (Xollar, 1.c.) 
It will be observed that Kollar’s descriptions (taken from only two injured specimens brought 
by Baron Von Hiigel from Masuri) are not sufficiently precise to enable any one who has never seen 
* Proc. Zool, Soc. Lond., 1886, p. 366, n. 42, 
