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



elevation I saw them literally by hundreds. There are some peculiar little 

 marshes here and there on the ghat covered with grass or sedge of a parti- 

 cularly dark green colour, and as the butterflies were hovering over these 

 in large numbers, I imagined that the food plant was to be found there. 



The rainfall on this ghat is particularly heavy and, on the only other 

 occasions I had of traversing the ghat, there was so much rain that no self- 

 respecting butterfly would have shewn itself. I have not seen this species 

 anywhere else either in Malabar or in the Anaimalai Hills of Coimbatore. 



P. M. LUSHINGTON, i.f.s. 



Coimbatoke, 27th October 1910. 



No. XXVI.— FOOD PLANTS OF ATELLA FHALANTHA. 



Mr. Bell in his paper in the last issue of the Journal gives the food plants 

 of Atella phalantJia as all belonging "as far as is known" to the genus 

 Flacourtia. I have bred it from larvse found on Salix tetrasperma, Roxb. 

 The young shoots of this tree in swamps here are almost defoliated by it in 

 spring, and the butterflies may be seen in scores flying round the lower 

 branches and laying their eggs. 



H. LESLIE ANDREWES. 



Barwood Estate, Niluiris, 20th October 1910. 



No. XXVIL— LARVA OF VANESSA INDICA. 



On page 282 of the last number of this Journal (Vol. XX, No. 2), the 

 author of the paper on " Common Butterflies of the Plains of India," speak- 

 ing of Vanessa indica, remarks : — " This butterfly has not been bred as far 

 as is known." 



I have repeatedly reared Vanessa indica, in Ceylon, from larvje feeding 

 upon the foliage of the large "Nilgiri Nettle " (Girardinia heterophylla var. 

 palmata). Moore also, in the " Lepidoptera of Ceylon," records its food 

 plant as Urtica neilgherriensis, which is presumably a synonym of the same 

 plant. 



The larva has habits similar to those of its European relative, spinning 

 the edges of a leaf together and resting within the shelter so formed. It 

 frequently pupates within the larval shelter. In appearance the larva is 

 very like that of atalanta, but is usually rather darker. 



The Nilgiri Nettle is a formidable plant. Its stinging spines are long 

 and sharp, and can penetrate ordinary clothing without any difficulty. 

 The sting is very painful at the time, but its unpleasant effects pass off 

 more rapidly than do those of the common European nettle. 



E. ERNEST GREEN. 

 Pekadeniya, Ceylon, 26W October 1910. 





