D2; LIFE-HISTORIES OF PTEROPHORIDA 
-At Shillong the larva is found commonly on Teucrium quadrifariwm 
and Seutellaria discolor. Figures la and 1b are made from spirit specimens 
of the larva and pupa. 
f 
PLATYPTILIA MOLOPTAS, MEYR. | v-6 fs Pb ) 
Platyptilia molopias, Meyr., B. J., XVIT, 135 (1906)(') ; Fletcher, Spol. Zeylan., 
VI, 12-13, t..Af..1, t. EB £. 4 (1909)(2). 
it This species 1s common in the Hill Districts of Ceylon but does not appear 
to have been found in India hitherto. We have it from Maskeliya, Haldum- 
mulla and Pattipola. . 
“The egg is about 0°47 mm. long by about 0°3 mm. broad, the micropylar 
end di-tinctly the larger and flattened ; in colour it is of a very pale green, the 
surface reticulated with large but shallow rounded depressions. 
‘“‘TLarvee were found on 18th May 1908 at Madulsima, feeding on the 
flowers and unripe seeds of Teucriwm tomentosum. The larva is of a very 
pale green colour and is very difficult to discern when 7m sitw on the foodplant. 
Hali-grown examples often seem to have a narrow reddish medio-dorsal stripe, 
lacking in adults, which latter have sometimes some lateral reddish markings 
on the thoracic segments. Like all “ plume ” larvee, however, this one is very 
variable in colour, and some examples might be described as reddish with a 
greenish latero-dorsal suffusion on the abdominal segments. The head is 
yellowish or pale green, the ocelli very distinctly marked in black. The 
segmental divisions are sharply distinct. All primary hairs are white ; the 
longest hairs are a little longer than the diameter of the segments on which 
they arise. The legs are yellowish-green, extremities of claws yellowish. 
Prolegs very transparent pale green, hooks reddish. Spiracles very incon- 
spicuous. Secondary hairs short, black. 
“The pupa is suspended freely by the tail from an empty flower-sheath 
of the foodplant. It is rather short, the appendage sheaths very long and well 
separated. Colour a pale flesh-pink, mottled longitudinally with brown ; 
head and wing-sheaths pale greenish, the latter with longitudinal brown 
shading. Dorsal prominences small, distinct, subequal, directed forward, 
except the first, which is extremely large, directed backwards, blunt, but 
tipped anteriorly with a sharp spine whose point is bent forward. This large 
prominence is sharply outlined by a deep brown shading which reaches: 
obliquely anteriorly half-way across the wing-cover. A second brown shade, 
parallel to the first but less intense and narrower, occurs on the sixth segment, 
but’ barely reaches on to the wing-sheath. 
“The moth emerges from the pupa after about a week “(?). 
