134 PIEKlD.t. 



Family 



Egg. " Ampulliform, shaped like a soda \vater-bottle, twice as 

 high as wide, forming a short neck or stalk close to the apex ; 

 radiate, with strong anastomosing ribs." (l)oherty .) 



Larva. More or less cylindrical, depressed, very slight, tapered 

 towards each end : pubescent, the hairs short and fairly dense, 

 each from a minute tubercle ; occasionally the hairs are long and 

 sparse ; prothoracic segments without protrudable tentacles, like 

 those in the Papili<mida>. Colour generally green. Feeds chiefly 

 on plants that belong to the natural orders Leguminosce and 

 Capparidacece. 



Pupa. Angulated, the head pointed, sometimes produced into a 

 long snout ; suspended perpendicularly and sustained by a single 

 silken girth. 



Imago. Wings comparatively ample ; their terminal margins 

 entire, very exceptionally angulated at the apices of one or more 

 of the veins ; discoidal cells of both fore and hind wings closed ; in 

 a few forms the discocellulars attenuated, but never absent. 

 Among the Pieridce specialization in the veining of the wings 

 seems to have been directed more to the fore than to the hind 

 wing. In the former wing the median series of veins has been 

 most affected. In the Indian genera of the Pieridce, vein 6 is very 

 exceptionally emitted from the cell ; in most it has shifted up and 

 is thrown off from the lower side of vein 7 beyond the apex of the 

 cell ; thus the upper discocellular veinlet is absent. In one genus 

 (Baltia) vein 5 even has been similarly moved forward and is 

 emitted from* vein 7, so that in this genus there is only one disco- 

 cellular veinlet. The radial system of veins has'also been modified. 

 In only two of the Indian genera is vein 8 present. In the others 

 it has been shifted up and crowded out at the apex of the wing. 

 The point at which vein 9 is emitted from vein 7 is very variable, 

 and in more than one genus it forms a minute fork with vein 7, 

 very close to the apex of the wing, so that it is merely rudimentary, 

 while in one or two other genera it has completely disappeared. 

 The position of vein 10 is similarly variable, but in no Indian 

 genus has it completely disappeared, a'nd only in two genera is it 

 shifted up and emitted beyond the cell. 



Specialization in the veining of the hind wing is not so con- 

 spicuous. In one or two genera the precostal vein or spur is absent, 

 but in all there is one vein more than in the Papilionidff. This 

 vein, 1 a, gives peculiar breadth to the dorsal margin of the wing, 

 which is channelled to receive the abdomen. Antenna? elongate 

 with a more or less ovate club, or short and thickened gradually 

 to the apex. Legs: all six present and functional: tibiae of the 

 fore legs without the pad so conspicuous in the Papilionidcc ; 



