COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 303 



costal margin on the disc. When the pupa is formed away from a sur- 

 rounding of green leaves, say in a breeding-cage, then the colour may be 

 trey with black patches and marks but no red or mother-of-pearl. 

 L : 17 mm. ; B : 6 mm. 



Habits. — The egg is laid upon young shoots ; the trees are gene- 

 rally all and wholly a mass of young shoots during the great laying- 

 time in March-April. The larva lives on the underside of a leaf, 

 is extremely active, running about at a great pace and falls by a silk 

 when touched or alarmed at very slight provocation. It turns green 

 before pupating but is otherwise always of the colour given in the 

 description above. It is very common in most parts of India all 

 through the year except in the seasons of heavy rain. In Kanara, 

 for example, it is hardly to be found at all in the months of June 

 to October and there is little doubt that this off-time is passed in 

 the egg state. The growth of the caterpillar is extremely rapid, 

 the time from the laying of the egg to the newly-born butterfly 

 occupying but the short space of twenty-one days ! Truly a most 

 marvellous performance when the number of changes the insect 

 goes through is considered ; the egg-stage, five moults during the 

 larval life, then the pupal state. The butterflies emerging in the 

 cold weather are lighter in colour above and have much more 

 purple suffusion beneath than the ones that see the light in April 

 and May when the shoots are possibly more succulent than the earlier 

 ones ; indeed the latter insects may have hardly any purple at all and 

 have, in that case, the black spots much more clearly defined on the 

 underside. The flight is powerful and quick, like most of the 

 Argynnis tribe, for to that type the present insect belongs. It is not 

 long sustained, however. The insect is fond of flowers and basks in 

 the sun on leaves of trees and bushes, generally not far from the 

 ground, sometimes, though sufficiently seldom, on the earth itself; 

 it is an insect of open, sunny places and shuns the shade, being 

 more numerously represented, therefore, on the borders of the 

 heavier jungle tracts and out in the open plain country than in 

 the jungles and hills of India. It rests with its wings closed very 

 generally and always on the top of leaves ; but often, when 

 sporting in the sun-light, it settles with the wings half open, 

 working them towards and away from each other while sitting. 

 The flight consists of an exceptionally quick motion of the wings 



