COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 293 



in size, in interspaces 2 and 3. Hindwing uniform, the costa and apex 

 broadly and the abdominal fold, brown ; vein 1 with long, soft, greyish-brown 

 hairs along its length, extending also over the abdominal fold. Fore and 

 hindwings with a dark-brown, subterminal, zigzag line commencing below 

 vein 3 on the forewing. Underside resembling a dry leaf; ground-colour 

 variable but usually some shade of brown (rusty, greyish and ochreous 

 brown being the most common), always with scattered dark dots or little 

 patches having the appearance of fungous-like or lichenous growths so 

 common on dead leaves in the tropics. When the insect closes its wings 

 over its back the likeness to a dead leaf is most striking and is heightened 

 by a straight, narrow, transverse, dark band running from the apex of the 

 forewing to the tornus of the hindwing, often with oblique narrower, similar 

 bands or lines given off from it, all simulating the mid-rib and lateral veins 

 of a leaf; the hindwing in all specimens has a more or less obsolescent or 

 faint series of postdiscal ocelli, traces of which are also apparent on the 

 forewing. Antennae dark-brown ; head, thorax and abdomen very dark 

 greenish-brown ; beneath, the palpi, thorax and abdomen ochraceous earthy- 

 brown. 



Wet-season form.— Male and female similar. Differs in colour of the dis- 

 cal band on the upperside of the forewing ; this is of a uniform pale blue of 

 a slightly lighter or darker shade, varying individually, but not turning to 

 white towards the costal margin as in the dry-season specimens. Under- 

 side: ground-colour on the whole darker than in the dry-season form but 

 with the same protective colourin°\ 



The apex of the forewing and the tornal angle of hindwing are more 

 produced in the female than in the male and much more produced in the 

 dry-season form than in the wet-season form ; the hyaline spots on the disc 

 of the forewing may be large, small or entirely wanting in both sexes of 

 both forms. 



Egg.— Is lengthened dome-shaped, the top hemispherical, the transverse 



ection of the rest circular, smallest at the base, the breadth slightly 



greatest at origin of hemisphere ; twelve thin, distinct, raised meridional 



ndges from base, losing themselves towards apex of egg ; surface smooth ; 



colour exceptionally dark-green. B : 0-9 mm. ; H : 12 mm. 



Larva.-The larva is of the type of Hypolimnas. Head shiny black 



"mounted by two divergent horns pointing up and out at an angle of 135° 



with the plane of the face; their surface rugose with small hair-bearing 



mostly thinly conical, but some cylindrical and longer tubercles, all black 



id shiny; surface of head with some long, cylindrical tubercles on cheeks 

 and a few hairs elsewhere ; clypeus rather large, triangular ; the whole head 

 snmy black, labrum only whitish. Spiracles small, oval, black. Body 

 surface .covered with fine hairs ; the spines are all longly conical, rather 

 finer than those of Hypolimnas, all flesh-red, ending in a fine black bristle, 



