COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 301 



is very firmly fixed to a pad of black silk. It wriggles when touch- 

 ed. The larvas drop to the ground when alarmed, especially when 

 they are young. The imago or butterfly is, like the larva, protected 

 from enemies by its taste ; it is, consequently, somewhat difficult to 

 kill by the ordinary thorax-pressure. Its flight is, as a very general 

 rule, slow and, what is called, weak, somewhat like that of a danaine 

 butterfly ; it keeps near the ground amongst low jungle, always goes 

 straight ahead, though by no means in a straight line and does not 

 affect " beats " like Danais and Euploea often do. It does not bask, 

 and stays a long time on the wing, resting near the ground in wet 

 weather and at nights with wings closed over the back. It visits 

 flowers. Its distribution is throughout Southern India in jungly 

 places. The larva feeds upon Modecca palmata, Lamk., the wild 

 Passion-flower of the family Passiflorece, with grey-green, somewhat 

 fleshy, lobed leaves and long, trailing tendrils, a globular, orange 

 coloured fruit, about one inch in diameter, and a woody rootstock. 

 The leaves and young parts are cooked and eaten as a vegetable by 

 the coast people in Kanara. The caterpillar will eat the leaves of 

 the cultivated passion-flower also. 



There are six species of Cetliosia found in Indian limits ; others 

 frequent the Indo and Austro-Malaj^an Regions. 



65. Atella phalantha, Druvy (PI. C, fig. 10). — Male and female upperside 

 bright ochraceous yellow, spotted and marked with black. Forewing : cell 

 crossed by three short, sinuous lines and one along the discocellulars, a 

 series of spots beyond, bent inwards below interspace 4 and continued 

 immediately below the median vein, followed by two transverse series of 

 discal spots, a postdiscal series of continuous lunules, a subterminal slender 

 line, and a terminal series of spots at the apices of the veins. Hindwing : 

 basal half with three or four transverse rows of obscure spots, better defined 

 anteriorly, a discal series of four spots, a postdiscal series of slender 

 lunules, a subterminal sinuous line, and a row of terminal spots as on the 

 forewing. Underside paler ochraceous, the markings much as on the upper- 

 side but fainter and paling to reddish-brown ; the terminal spots of the two 

 discal rows on the forewing large, conspicuous and black. Forewing stain- 

 ed with pale purple between the transverse lines across the cell and beyond 

 its apex, also broadly along the terminal margin in the middle of the wing. 

 Hindwing : the outer half more or less suffused with pale purple. Antennse, 

 head, thorax and abdomen dark ochraceous ; thorax and abdomen beneath 

 whitish. Exp. 50-63 mm. 



