292 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



needs no separate description. In size the variation is less, as might be 

 expected from the small difference in the measurements of the imagines of 

 the present species as compared to those of the preceding. 



Habits. — The ways of the larva are much the same as for the last 

 species except that, the food being somewhat more limited, it is 

 not so commonly met with ; it is not so plentiful in the regions of 

 heavy rainfall and forest as H. bolina. The butterfly has also much 

 the same habits as that species though the female is very much 

 more rarely seen than the male, which is not the case with 

 H. bolina. The male sits on the undersides of leaves within two 

 to six feet of the ground when resting during the day-time and at 

 night when the wings are closed over its back, the forewings 

 sunk between the hindwings ; it is not quite so pugnacious as the 

 preceding species and is only very occasionally seen in houses — 

 probably because the individuals are not numerous enough. The 

 insects are not often seen at flowers. The flight is strong,' though 

 never long sustained, of the ordinary " skipping " type, though less 

 pronouncedly so than, for example, that of Charaxes ; the pace is 

 sometimes very fast, at other times fairly slow and it never carries 

 the insect to any great height above the ground. The males are 

 fond of basking on low bushes and even on the ground in the sun. 

 The food-plant is Portulaca oleracea, Linn., (Portulacacece), a spread- 

 ing weed with succulent branches, thick fleshy leaves, and yellow 

 flowers, lying more or less flat on the ground, belonging to the 

 botanical family containing the spinach and is itself often used as 

 a vegetable in. India. The plant is commoner in the open, drier 

 parts of the country -than in the forest-clad hills where there is 

 plenty of rain. Like the plant, the insect is naturally more plenti- 

 ful in regions of moderate rainfall than where the monsoon is heavy. 

 It is, however, found throughout Indian limits, Ceylon, Burma and 

 extends to the Malayan subregion and China. 



62. Kallima horsfieldi, Kollar. (PI. D, fig. 21). — Dry-season form. — Male 

 and female upperside indigo-blue ; in some specimens with a decided green 

 tint. Forewing with a broad, oblique, slightly curved, sinuous-edged, pale 

 blue band turning to white on the anterior half ; the distance measured on 

 the costa of the outer edge of this band from the base of the wing greater 

 than half the length of wing ; its inner margin bordered by short, obliquely 

 placed, detached, linear, black markings ; apical area beyond the band jet- 

 black with a preapical white spot ; medial hyaline spots, the lower variable 



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