COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS. 526 



afternoons, it may loe found feeding at flowers growing close to the 

 ground when it takes frequent flights in course of its quest ; it is 

 rather weak on the wing, but flies well when at it ; that is, it does 

 not flutter ; it keeps to rather thick places, grass or weeds being- 

 favourites, and is fond of sitting on dead grass-stems and blades 

 closing its wings over its back immediately it settles, the pinkish 

 yellowish colour of the undersides of which blend very well with the 

 withered surroundings ; it is not easy to see if not disturbed. It 

 has been noticed in Kanara, a district where the monsoons are 

 very heavy, that Iceta only appears when these cease, about the 

 month of October ; the little insect is quite common from Novem- 

 ber to June wherever there is grass and the shade overhead is not 

 too dense, but after the first rains commence hardly one is to be 

 seen. Unfortunately nobody has gone into the question at all and 

 so the reason for this is still a mj^stery ; but the fact is curious 

 and the explanation might possibly be that venata and Iceta are one 

 and the same species, the latter the cold-weather (dry-season) 

 form with distinctly marked underside and accentuated points to 

 the fore wings ; it is known that the cold weather produces these 

 particular results in members of other families as, in the Satyrinoi, 

 shown in Melanitis ; in the Nymp]iali7tce, in Junonia (almana — 

 asterie) and Kallima ; and others. Venata has not been particularly 

 noticed as occurring in Kanara in any numbers, while, as remark- 

 ed, Iceta is abundant ; but this does not go for much as the different 

 species of Terias are everywhere abundant, nobody bothers very 

 much about them and libythea is, cursorily, sufficiently like venata 

 for the latter to be passed over when not specially sought out. The 

 matter is under investigation and it is hoped will be settled in the 

 near future. The result will be published. Lceta is found in the 

 Himalayas from the borders of Afghanistan to Bhutan ; in the 

 Punjab; Western India : Ahmednagar, Karachi, Poona, Bombay, 

 Khandesh ; Southern India : the Nilgiris and Anamalai Hills ; in 

 Assam, Burma and Tenasserim. 



There is one thing that rather goes against the probability of 

 lceta and venata being different forms of the same insect and that is 

 the absence (according to the books) of the former from Ceylon and 

 Ganjam on the East Coast of India; the latter, too, is not recorded 

 from Tenasserim, where the former occurs. Of course it is possible 

 th^t lceta may occur in Ceylon but it seems very improbable as the 

 Island has been well worked by lepidopterists. 



113. Terias libythea. — The form does not seem subject to seasonal dimor- 

 phism or polymorphism in so great a degree as some of the others belonging 

 to the genus Terias. 



Male, uiypevside : gamboge-yellow. Fore wing : the apical third black ; 

 the inner margin of the black area, more or less regularly concave, extends 

 from the apex of the basal third of the costa and curves round to a point on 

 the dorsum just before the tornal angle base of wing irrorated with black 



