8 LIFE-HISTORIES OF PTEROPHORIDA 
green. There is a broad dull reddish longitudinal spiracular stripe, on which 
the spiracles stand out as pale longitudinal blotches. The medio-dorsal stripe 
has a faint tinge of red in it, making it a little darker than the ground-colour. 
On either side of this, bordering the darker brown latero-dorsal tubercles, is a 
series of whitish longitudinal dashes, forming two interrupted dorsal lines— 
these markings absent in one larva. Head dark brown. ‘The long hairs are 
black and obviously sticky. A younger larva, about half-grown, is dark 
brown without any obvicus markings, the hairs very distinctly clubbed at the 
apex.” 
“The larva is generally rather sluggish but can be quite active, e.g., if 
searching for food. If it loses its foothold, it drops by a silken thread. It 
feeds on the unripe seeds of Boerhaavia repens, commencing by eating the 
viscid exudation on the outside of the perianth tube, through which it then 
gnaws a hole and excavates the contents. Small insects, especially ants, are 
often seen to be caught by this gummy secretion, but the gum does not seem 
to incommode the larve at all; probably their extremely long prolegs are 
specially modified to carry them over it without touching it as they walk, and 
the long larval hairs prevent contact of the body with neighbouring drops 
of gum ’’(!*). 
“The larva seems to pupate almost invariably on the slender stem just 
below a seed-head, although I have once found an empty pupa-case attached 
to the mid-rib on the under-surface of a small leaf. The pupa hangs freely 
suspended, the discarded larval skin not being shrivelled up but stretched 
out at full length along the stem just above it. The rain soon destroys the 
empty pupa-cases and one finds only the anal portion with the discarded 
larval skin. The colour of the pupa is very variable ; sometimes it is a light 
apple-green, sometimes a brownish-grey ”("*). 
Tos Plo) 
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BUCKLERIA WAHLBERGI, ZELL. (PLATE I, FIG. 2.) 
Pterophorus wahlbergi, Zell., Linn, Ent. VI, 346 (1852)('). 
Pterophorus rutilalis, Wlk., Cat. XXX, 9438 (1864)(2); Xe TES Agu... 
Trichoptilus pyrrhodes, Meyr., Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales (2) IV, 1113 (1889)(3). 
Trichoptilus wahlbergi, Meyr., B. J.. XVII, 134 (1906)(*) ; Fletcher, Spolia 
Zeylan, VI, 27-28, t. Af. 10 (1909)(°). 
Buckleria wahlbergi, Fletcher, T. L. 8. (2) XIII, 399, f. 2 (1910)(6). 
This is a widely distributed species recorded from South Africa, St. Helena, 
Seychelles, India, Ceylon and Queensland(®). It is common throughout 
India and Ceylon and we have it from Kandy, Haldummulla and Madulsima 
