COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 763 



with the wings closed and may be foiind at any time of the year 

 in the hilly forest regions of the Western Ghats in Bombay. It is 

 :a jungle species inhabiting the country at all levels from the sea up. 

 The food-plants of the larva are belonging to the Laurineoe and it 

 has been bred on Cinnamomum zeylcmicu'm, Breyn, Alseodaioline semi- 

 .carpifolia, Nees, Litsea chinensis, Lam., Machilus macrantha, Nees. 

 Many of these are great big trees but the butterfly generally chooses 

 •small saplings or low shoots to lay on. P. teredon is confined to 

 .Southern India and Ceylon and is said to be found nowhere else. 



Other S'libs'pecies are i^arsedon, Westw., from Timor and other 

 Malayan Islands, with a longer tail than teredon ; cJioredon, Feld., 

 from Australia and New Guinea with a broader band ; anthedon 

 Feld., from Amboina, Ceram, with large, strongly arched submar- 

 •ginal spots to hind wing; milon, Feld., from Celebes, &c., with all 

 the spots of the band separated. P. doantJius, Westw., from North 

 India, Assam, Shan States and China has a fine subspecies suma- 

 iranus, Hagen, with a very broad, yellowish green band, occurring 

 in Sumatra. 



Habits. — The eggs are laid singly on young shoots, generally of 

 .small young trees or saplings, in shady places, and generally on 

 the upper surface of leaves. The larva always lies on the upper 

 .surface in the centre of a leaf ; when alarmed, it throws out a stiff, 

 jelly-like process with a short base and two long diverging, cylin- 

 drico-conical branches of a light, translucent lemon-yellow colour 

 from the membrance between the vertex of the head and segment 

 2 ; this process contracts into itself slowly when withdrawn ; it 

 ..smells strongly of the leaves of the food-plant when crushed 

 — this organ is the osmeterium. 



The coloured figure of male and female (figs. 30, 30a) on plate 

 D5 show the iipperside not black enough, the blue band perhaps 

 .too green, certainly not bright enough ; there is too much red 

 .shade about it as iTSual. The same may be said of the undersides. 

 The difference in length of the tail to hind wing in the two sexes 

 is too much accentuated. 



96. Papilio agamemnon, L. (PI. D5, fig. 29). — Male iqjperside -. black. Fore- 

 wing with the following green markings : a spot at the extreme base of the 

 .costal margin, a transverse, short bar near base of cell and seven spots in 



