450 Lieut.-Col. N. Manders on the Stitdy of Mimicry hy 



29.10.09. Man}^ of the larvae are lialf-grown. She is 

 still ovipositing. To-day 1 collected over 

 100 eggs, laid since the 24th, Transferred 

 to another cage. 

 2.11.09. No more eggs laid. 



4,11.09. Found dead, apparently from natural causes. 

 Two larvae pupated to-day ; the pupation 

 of larvae from eggs first laid is practically 

 coincident with the length of oviposition." 

 It only appears in Ceylon directly after the rain, at the 

 burst of the North-East Monsoon, and dies out with it. 

 It has occurred the last four years with extraordinary 

 regularity; in 1908 early in October; 1909 on October 

 12th ; 1910 on October 12th ; 1911 on October 7th. They 

 always appear in considerable numbers and in the finest 

 condition, and are no doubt bred on the spot. It flies 

 commonly in November, gets scarce towards the end of 

 December, by which time the females have mostly dis- 

 appeared, and the last few males die out towards the end 

 of January, not to be seen again until the following October. 

 Males and females are equally numerous, the males fre- 

 quenting flowering shrubs, and the females more open 

 ground in the neighbourhood of the food-plant, Portulaca 

 oleracca. It is in such country that its presumed model, 

 D. chrysippus, occurs, and it is not uncommon for the 

 chrysi2)2'>us ^ to mistake the misij)pus $ for one of its own 

 species. Butterflies recognise each other by sight as well 

 as by scent ; the smell of a crushed misippus is very difl"er- 

 ent from that of chrysiiip^ts. It is not rare for misijypus ^ 

 to court for a few moments D. chrysippus. 



The form of female which represents D. chrysippus, form 

 dorippus, known as inaria. Cram., is distinctly rarer than 

 the female of the type diocijipus, Cram., which resembles 

 chrysij)pus. In Colombo, in eight years, I have not seen a 

 dozen specimens; but Mr. Ormiston tells me that in his 

 part of the country at 4,500 ft., the proportion is about 

 one of inaria to six of the type. Intermediates are 

 rare ; I picked out one in a collector's box which had the 

 white apical bar thickly covered with reddish scales, but 

 have never taken one myself or known of one taken by 

 others. 



It was advisable to ascertain the normal number of 

 inaria in a batch of eggs laid by diocippus and vice versa, 

 but unfortunately I was unable to find a single specimen 



