THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS OF INDIA. 27 



and body black above, grey beneath. — Female. Upperside paler blue, with- 

 out gloss. Foro wing with broad, costal and outer, marginal, black borders, 

 a white patch, sometimes tinged with ochreous beyond the cell. Hind 

 wing witn the costal and outer, marginal, black borders broader than in 

 the male ; abdominal space clear of blackish suffusion ; the fold blackish- 

 grey ; a white, anteciliary line from the anal lobe to vein 2. Underside 

 paler than the male, markings similarly disposed, but more defined. 

 Expanse : male, 35-50mm ; female, 4o-60 mm. 



Egg. — Hemispherical, very much flattened in shape. Surface pitted all over 

 with small cells which may be hexagonal but their shape is obscured by 

 the thick, coarse walls which are double the diameter of the cell — aper- 

 tures ; there are some scattered thickenings of the intersections of 

 cell walls ; on the very apex of the egg there is a more or less circular 

 depression, the bottom of which is minutely pitted. The egg is broadest 

 just above the base. The colour is green as seen at the bottoms of the 

 cells and apical depression ; the cell-walls are all white obscuring most of 

 the ground-colour. B : 1.7omm. ; B : 1mm. 



Larva. — Nearly exactly the same as that of V. isocrates. Head of 

 medium size, light j^ellow-brownish ; shining. The stir/ace shining ; covered 

 with similar black hairs but slightly longer than in ■isocrates ; the other 

 hairs also longer : instead of one hair, subdorsal, on each segment there 

 are here three or four subdorsal on each side on segments 4-6 and two 

 on 8-10 ; the little wart-like tubercular swellings below each spiracle bear 

 some rather longer, white bristles ; the edges of the shovel perhaps 

 more tumid. The spiracles large, oval, black. The colour indigo-brown ; 

 segments 1-3 orange-brown ; marks on segments 7, 8 are light-cream 

 coloured ; segments 11-13 same colour as 1-3, but somewhat darker ; the 

 spiracles of segment 12 larger, L : 25mm. ; B : nearly 7mm. 



Pupa. — Similar to that of isocrates but the constriction more pronounced 

 because the abdomen is more swollen at segments 7 and 8 where it is 

 highest and broadest ; circular in transverse section. Surface covered 

 with minute hairs sparsely, more dense round spiracles and a little longer 

 along the front margin of segment 2 ; the thorax is more humped than in 

 isocrates. Spiracles of segment 2 facing slightly forwards instead of 

 being flush ; the other spiracles long and narrow, dark -brown. Colour dirty 

 light-brown, L : 16 mm. ; B : 7 mm. 



Habits. — Exactly the same as those of V. isocrates. They do 

 not deviate in any single particular from them ; ants only attend 

 the larvae as scavengers and not as visitors except that they ma}^ 

 occasionally find some of the sugary ferment on the backs of the 

 latter that might attract them — there shonld be a good deal of the 

 sort adhering to a bristle-bearing surface. The butterflies are 

 strong and rapid in flight and difficult to catch ; the males bask 

 also, like those of isocrates, but are not found at the tops of hills 

 so much ; they do not commonly visit flowers, neither do they go 

 to water. The habitat of i^erse in India is from the Himalayas to 

 the South. It is, seemingly, confined more to the jungles than the 

 other species, isocrates, and is certainly more plentiful on the 

 sea-coast in Kanara than that species, and continues plentiful as 

 far as the jungle lasts to the east, say to where the rainfall diminishes 

 to 40 inches. The commonest foodplant is Randia dmnetorum 

 (fruits). 



