874 PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIED ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



According to Antram emergence in North-East India takes place in 

 April-May. The pupal period there would appear to be about the same, 

 as larvse are reported by Andrews as doing damage " towards the end of 

 the cold weather." It would be interesting to know during what month 

 young larvse are first found in this area, so that the relative times in each 

 stage in North-East India and Ceylon can be compared. 



Assuming that the period September-January is passed in Ceylon 

 in the egg stage, what is the factor controlling hatching ? It cannot 

 be rain, as that may occur, heavily, during any portion of this time, the 

 North-East monsoon, neither can it be the cessation of rain, which does 

 not occur until February ; possibly it is cold, which only occurs in January. 



Imago. 



The insect on emergence can expand the wings without taking up 

 the more or less vertical position necessary in most Lepidoptera. The 

 pupa remains in the pupal chamber, the long axis of which is more usually 

 parallel to the ground, thus bringing the emerging moth out on a line 

 parallel to the ground, but this hardly seems a satisfactory explanation 

 for so singular a power as this. 



I have taken one imago at light. 



All the imagines I have taken and bred havel)een exactly similar. 

 The form figured by Antram on Fig. 2 of his plate is unknown to me. 



The fairly noticeable swellings over the pupation pits are often seen 

 torn open from one side and the larva or pupa missing. This I think is 

 the work of squirrels, which are common among rubber, whereas birds 

 are comparatively rare. Sometimes spiders, often with eggs, are found 

 in the pupal pits, whilst I have also found occasionally small beetles, 

 (? Coccinelhds), and an ovate mite with lajge scorpioid claws, but I am 

 not decided as to whether these are not only chance visitors to empty 

 opened pits. Spiders certainly make use of the pits for nests long after 

 they are empty. Of internal parasites, I have actually bred none, but 

 have fairly frequently found the inner cover of the pupal pit pierced 

 by a round hole in the centre as if for the exit of a Hymenopteron, the 

 remains of the pupa being found within the pit. Lastly, at the end 

 of October 1918 I found a pupa which contained a white soft-bodied 

 maggot, completely filling the pupal skin, which shelled off whilst I was 

 removing it, thus preventing the rearing of the parasite. 



