7. BAINBRIGGE FLETCHER 7 
Trichoptilus congrualis, Fletcher, Spolia Zeylan., VI, 28-39, t. A £28) ¢. Wets2, 
3 (1909)(4). 
Trichoptilus defectalis, Fletcher, T. L. 8. (2) RUT, 312) (1809) (3°). 
_ Buckleria defectalis, Fletcher, T. L. 8. (2) XIII, 398-399 (1910)("%). 
Originally described from West Africa(!) and Ceylon (*) *), this is an 
extremely widely distributed species, recorded from the Southern United 
States, West Indies, Peru, West, South and East Africa, Mauritius, Farquhar 
Island, Amirantes, Coetivy, Seychelles, Chagos Islands, Ceylon, India, Formosa, 
China, New Guinea, North-East Australia and Hawaii('®). 
In India and Ceylon this seems to be a Plains species, found abundantly 
in all sandy areas where its foodplant, Boerhaavia, occurs. We have specimens 
from Trincomali, Colombo, Coimbatore, Pusa, Chapra, Bassein Fort (Bon bay), 
Lyallpur, Peshawar, and Hangu (Kurram Valley). 
The following description was made from a larva found at Galle on 10th 
May, 1907 :—‘‘ The larva has just cast its skin (which remains alongside it, 
uneaten) and is probably just commencing its final instar. Length 5°5 mm, 
Breadth in thickest part (about middle) 15 mm. Hairs about 1 mm. long. 
In shape it is cylindrical, moderately stout, tapering at either extremity. When 
crawling, the thoracic segments, especially the prothoracic, are greatly extended 
and appear very slender and flattened. The head appears to be uniformly 
jetty-black, but under a high-power lens the central portion and jaws are seen 
to be yellowish with a few short yellowish hairs. The ground-colcur along 
the side is a pale yellowish shade of duty grey with a tinge of red (this last 
colour is more pronounced in some specimens). There is a narrow medio-dorsal 
stripe of a shade rather darker than the ground-colour and a little redder. On 
the metathoracic segment the two warts edging the medio-dorsal line are 
faintly marked with dark reddish-fuscous ; the four succeeding segments have 
these warts distinctly marked with the same dark reddish-fuscous, and 
therefore show up like spots. (In other larvee all the dorsal warts are more or 
less marked with dark fuscous, shading off at either extremity of the larva.) 
A broad but indistinct fuscous subspiracular line. A rather brcad ventral 
‘pale-greenish stripe. The prolegs are very long and slender and are of a pale 
ereyish greenish-yellow, the hocks dark ; the legs are similarly coloured. The 
long hairs appear dark but there are numerous minute white knobbed glan- 
dular secondary hairs scattered over the segments, and these appear to secrete 
a viscous fluid ’’(!*). 
Two full-fed larvee found at Colombo on 18th October, 1907, were described 
as “stout, stoutest about fourth segment, decreasing thence rapidly towards 
the head, anally gradually. Colour a pale yellow with a faint tinge of fuscous 
