COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. o21 



purpose of protection from enemies, particularly birds. P. dciksha 

 is one of the j&nest butterflies of India in point of size and quiet 

 beauty ; it is one of the four really large ones mentioned in these 

 papers and is not likely to be forgotten once seen. The insect is 

 on the wing all the year round but is commonest during the mon- 

 soon months. The food plants are rutaceous ; it has been bred 

 on Zautlioxylum Rhetsa, DC. ; Glycosmis 'penta]3liijlla, Correa ; Citrus 

 medica, L, ; Gitnis decumana, L. 5 all more or less evergreen trees and 

 widely distributed in the Indian region with the exception of the 

 first ; but there are other species of Zanthoxylum that are found in 

 places where Z. Rlietsa is not. P. dahsha is confined to Southern 

 India, the Nilgiris, M alabar and Travancore ; its place is taken by 

 mooreamts, Rothschild, in Ceylon and helenus L., in the Himalayas 

 from Mussoori to Sikkim, hills of Assam, Burma, Tenasserim, 

 Siam, China and the Malay Peninsula, both these difiering very 

 little though more or less constantly in small points from dahsha. 



The figui'es in PI. D3 have the ground colour slightly too red, 

 the fault being greatly accentuated in the lower or female insect : 

 this latter is altogether too light, females in nature being very 

 nearly as black as males ; the picture must have been painted from 

 a faded specimen. 



82. Papilio polymnestor, Cramer. (PI. D4, fig. 27 J , 27a $ ). — Male upperside: 

 rich velvety black. Forewing with a postdiscal band composed of inter- 

 nervular, broad, blue streaks gradually shortened and obsolescent an- 

 teriorly, not extended beyond interspace 6, very rarely into interspace 7. 

 Hindwing : the terminal three-fourths beyond a line crossing the apical 

 third of the cell blue or greyish blue, with superposed, postdiscal, sub- 

 terminal and terminal series of black spots ; the postdiscal spots elongate, 

 inwardly conical ; the subterminal oval, placed in the interspaces like the 

 postdiscal ones ; the terminal irregular, placed along the apices of the 

 veins and anteriorly coalescing sometianes more or less with the subter- 

 minal spots. Underside : opaque black. Forewing with an elongate red 

 spot at base of cell ; the postdiscal, transverse series of streaks as on the 

 upperside but grey tinged with ochraceous and extending right up to the 

 costa ; in some specimens similar but narrow streaks in the cell. Hind- 

 wing with five irregular small patches of red at base, the one nearest dor- 

 sal margin sometimes wanting ; the outer three-fourths of the wing touch- 

 ed with ochraceous but generally narrower than the blue on the upperside, 

 the inner margin of the colour crossing the wing beyond the cell ; the 



