414 LYC^XIDJE. 



its length from base, but as in wet-season specimens not reaching 

 the costal margin ; on the hind wing the blue suffusion covers the 

 entire medial portion of the wing from the base to the subterminal 

 row of spots, of which latter the spot in interspace 2 is entirely 

 without the inner ochraceous edging. c? $ Underside : ground- 

 colour darker than in specimens of the wet-season brood, the 

 discocellular and discal transverse bands on both fore and hind 

 wings broader, the terminal markings very ill-defined, the inner 

 white edging to the inner of the two subterminal transverse bands 

 broadened and very diffuse. On the hind wing the discocellular 

 and discal bands coalesce and form an ill- defined diffuse medial 

 cloud on the wing. 



Exp. <$ $ 24-32 mm. (0-93-1-24"). 



Hub. Peninsular India south of the outer ranges of the 

 Himalayas, but not in the desert tracts and somewhat local ; 

 Ceylon ; Assam ; Burma ; extending into the Malayan Subregion. 



Larva. " When full-grown a little over half an inch in length, 

 of two distinct colours, some being bright green, others of a dark 

 reddish purple (vinous) .... head very small, black, shining and 

 hidden beneath the second segment, the third segment larger than 

 the second, the other segments about equal in size, the anal 

 segment flattened and rounded, divisions between the segments 

 well- marked. The larva throughout is very rough, widely pitted 

 or depressed and covered with very minute white tubercles bearing 

 very short fine hairs, neither the hairs nor the tubercles being 

 visible without a lens. The body at its highest and widest part is 

 wider than high. It is extremely variable in its markings, hardly any 

 two being exactly alike ; there is usually a dark, dorsal, subdorsal 

 and lateral line dividing the upper surface of the body into three 

 equal areas, the dorsal and two subdorsal lines coalescing on the 

 eleventh segment and forming a broad band to the thirteenth. In 

 some specimens the divisions between the segments are marked 

 with darker and there is a subdorsal series of oblique dark lines, 

 one on each segment between the dorsal and subdorsal lines. The 

 underside of the body and legs seems to be always green. The erectile 

 organs on the twelfth segment very small. Feeds in Calcutta on 

 Cycas revoluta. In Calcutta three species of ants attend this 

 larva, which Professor Forel has identified for me as Prenolepis 

 longicornis, Latr., Monomorium specidare, Mayr and Cremastoyaster, 

 n. sp." (de Niceville.} 



Pupa. " Of the usual Lycaenid form, quite smooth, more or less 

 fuscous, with a darker dorsal and subdorsal line, head-case some- 

 what square, thorax slightly humped and constricted posteriorly, 

 spiracles pale. Though the larvae swarm in April and May in 

 Calcutta on the cultivated cycads in gardens, eating the hardlv 

 opened shoots or fronds, thereby utterly destroying the appearance 

 of the plant for the year, I have never succeeded in finding the 

 pupa on the plants, and can only conclude that the ants drive the 

 full-grown larvae down the stems of the plants into their nests, 

 where the larvae undergo their transformations." (de Niceville.) 



