coy/yiox butterflies oi the plaixs of india. 747 



inspiring sights to the active lepidopterist. It is a fast flier and 

 nearly always keeps to the tops of the trees round which it circles 

 in rapid activity. It is consequently difficult to catch ; a long net 

 and a quick eye are absolutely necessarj^ to effect a capture. Even 

 then it is nearly impossible without a careful choice of a place 

 <^)f vantage. The best waj^ is to choose a Tirphal tree (the 

 vernacular name of the foodplant in Mahratti) round which the 

 butterflies circulate, with a. rock or high place near it and wait 

 until an insect flies within reach ; or, better still, choose two 

 trees on a hill side or on uneven ground, one of which is 

 higher than the other and stand between them. The glint of the 

 blazing green of the wings as the insects pass below the level of 

 the eye will generall}^ ensure an amount of perseverance in the 

 chase that should result in ultimate success. Captures are always 

 found to be males, and the reason is difficult to guess, except it 

 were a fact that more of that sex were born than females. This, 

 however, is not the case as has been proved by breeding from the 

 ■egg and caterpillar. Indeed breeding results in more females 

 than males. Females lav but one eere" at a time, and do not take 

 long about it ; they fly as fast and as swiftly as males ; but no 

 one can say whether they keep it up as long : perhaps the}' do not, 

 and rest for long periods at a time, but even this would not explain 

 why so few are caught in the net, for there must be thousands and 

 tliousands of individuals in oxij one locality. Female hiiddha, 

 unlike the females of other insects which are also rarely met with 

 and which keep so it is said to the underwood and tree tops in 

 dense jungle, frequents open ground as often as the males and so 

 ought to be visil^le as often as these. She must fly at a different 

 time to the male ; it is the only explanation ; and that time 

 cannot be the hottest hours of the day. So little is known about 

 such matters ! The larva feeds upon Zanthoxylum EJietsa, DC, 

 mentioned before as one of the foodplants of Pajyilio helenus and 

 has not been found upon anything else. Zanthoxylum is a genus 

 of the T{utace(je. 



The caterpillar of this most taking insect was first discovered 

 by the late E. H. Aitken, that most genial of men and pleasant- 

 est of companions, in the j^ear 1894 in the vicinity of Karwar 



