o20 JOURNAL, BOMBAY 2fATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXII. 



they are less liable to parasitic attack than many others of the 

 family. The pupge can move the abdomen from side to side from 

 the junctions of segments 8 and 9, and 9 and 10 ; they do this slowly 

 when disturbed and produce a dull, knocking noise thereb}^ It 

 might alarm insect enemies. The imago is a . powerful flier, much 

 on the wing during sunny weather, active and fast, rising high into 

 the air and capable of covering long distances in continued effort. 

 It flies very straight in powerful, long, up and down curves, keep- 

 ing its wings well over the back for c[uite a space sometimes on 

 the downward grade ; it is fond of flowers on which it generally 

 rests, while feeding, with its wings closed ; it chooses the 

 undersides of leaves when reposing and likes wooded places. The 

 habit of migrating has been alluded to in the general remarks upon 

 the family ; that of coming to wet places in nallas and on roads 

 also exists ; clouds of insects may be put up from such spots in 

 years when th.ej are plentiful. C. crocale is one of the commonest 

 butterflies everywhere in India except in the absoluteh'- desert 

 tracts ; in the heavy-rainfall parts, where the vegetation is exu- 

 berant, the individuals are exceedingly numerous in certain years, 

 whether at sea -level or on the tops of the highest hills. The food 

 plants are all belonging to the family Leguminosece ; larvae have 

 been bred on most species of Cassia with a leaf large enough to 

 support their weight : fistula, siamea, tora ; upon Bauhinia racemosa 

 also and Butea frondoso. ; the favorite however is Cassia siamea 

 for the form crocale, C. fistula for catilla. These two forms are 

 so close together and grade so completely into each other in both 

 sexes that it is impossible to separate them absolutely. The distri- 

 bution is nearly throughout British India except in desert tracts ; 

 through Siam to China and the Malayan Subregion to Australia. 



109. Catopsilia pyranthe (PI. J, figs. 64 S , 64a $ .)— Male, upperside : 

 chalky white, tinted in some specimens with green. Fore wing : with or 

 without a discocellular, black spot that varies in size ; costa and termen 

 sometimes without a black m.argin ; occasionally the costa has its apical 

 third narrowly black, broadened slightly at the apex with black spots 

 between the anterior veins ; or again, the costa may be narrowly black, the 

 apex very broadly so and this colour continued down the termen, but 

 narrowed posteriorly. Hind wing : sometimes immaculate but generally 

 with narrow, terminal, black spots at the apices of the veins, these often 

 reduced to mere dots or again so broadened as to coalesce into a terminal, 

 black border. Underside : ground-colour similar, suft'used over the anterior 

 half of the fore and over the whole of the huid wing with a greenish tint 

 that varies to an ochraceous yellow and, except in the very palest speci- 

 mens, is evenly irrorated over the greenish or ochraceous-tinted areas 

 with transverse, short, reddish-brown strigas ; both fore and hind wings 

 with, generally, an obscure, discocellular, reddish-brown spot or indication 

 thereof. Female, upperside : as in the male but sometimes with a suffusion 

 of pale greenish-yellow on the terminal third or fourth only of both fore and 

 hind wings, rarely of that tint throughout. Fore wing : always with a 

 discocellular, black spot that varies very much in size ; costa somewhat 

 narrowly black with the basel halt pinkish, in other specimens narrowly 



