MB. F. MOOEE ON THE OPHIDERIN^ OF THE INDIAN REGION. G5 



Male. Fore wing dark ferruginous-brown or vinous-brown, numerously covered with 

 either ochreous, dark green, or greyish strigse, which on the exterior border form irre- 

 gular fascise and terminate in a straight streak to the apex ; an ante- and a postmedian 

 oblique transverse darker brown line, the interspace glossy and suffused generally with 

 purple-brown, the reniform mark being more or less unglossed. Hind wing orange- 

 yellow, with a broad black apical marginal band and row of pale yellow cilial spots ; a 

 large broad curved black discal band. Thorax, head, palpi, and legs above dark brown ; 

 abdomen orange-yellow ; legs and abdomen beneath paler ; a yellow spot on tibia3 and 

 tarsal joints ; palpi black-tipped. 



Female. Fore wing brighter-coloured, mottled grey and brown, strigee paler grey; 

 discal area and fasciae on exterior border chalybeous-grey ; postmedian line irregularly 

 sinuous, with a prominent white dentate spot on its middle and narrow lunules below 

 it ; reniform mark triangular, and more or less black ; a minute black orbicular spot. 

 Hind wing and body as in male. ■ 



Expanse 3 to 4^ inches. 



Ilab. India, N. W. Himalayas {Masuri, KussowUe), Lucknoiv, Umlalla, E. Himalayas 

 {Darjiling), Cacliar, AlUpore, W. and E. Ghauts {Bombay, Malabar, Madras) ; Ceylon ; 

 Andamans ; Malay peninsula ; Penang ; Sumatra ; Ja^-a ; Formosa ; Shanghai. 



From the above-cited localities (specimens from which have been examined) it 

 will be seen that this species has a very extended range of habitat. Specimens have 

 been also occasionally recorded as having been taken on board ship in the eastern seas, 

 many miles from land. It also occurs at Moreton Bay, Australia ; and an allied (or 

 probably the same) species, was taken by Mr. Wallace on Ke Island. Other closely 

 allied species from New Hebrides and Navigators' Islands, and another from Sierra 

 Leone, are in the British-Museum Collection. 



This insect is stated to be dreaded by the Australian colonists on account of the mis- 

 cliief the imago causes to the orange plantations — perforating the ripening fruit with 

 its proboscis, and thus causing them to soon fall to the ground and rot. 



This insect has been reared by Mr. A. Grotc at AUipore, near Calcutta, from larvae 

 feeding on Menisjiennum glahrum. Sir W. Elliot reared it at Vizagapatam on Coc- 

 eulus acuminatus and C. cordifoUus; and in Java it was frequently reared by Dr. 

 Horsfield from larvae feeding on the Tayungan {E])ihatheriiim, sp.) and on the Buntia 

 Silit {Lcschenaultia, sp.) from November to April, being most abundant in the latter 

 month. 



Major A. M. Lang, in his Entomological Note-book, gives the following account of 

 the rearing of the larva of this species at Lucknow in 1S66 : — 



" September Sth. Took from the middle of the underside of a leaf of (] Menispermum) 

 a solitary, spherical, smooth, unsculptured, translucent, light-yellowish egg, about ^"' in 

 diameter. Four or five more found on the lotli, all on the underside. On the 11th a 



