211 



THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS 

 OF INDIA. 



INCLUDING THOSE MET WITH IN THE HILL STATIONS 

 OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.) 



BY 



T. R, Bell, i.f.s. 

 {Continued from page 32 of this Volume.) 



Pakt XXVI. 

 With plate M. 

 Family — HESPEKiiDiE. 

 "All six legs perfect. Wings with the discoidal cell of hind wing slenderly and 

 often incompletely closed ; veins 8, 9, 10, 11, all emitted from subcostal nervure 

 before the end of cell and ending on costal margin ; all other veins direct from 

 the cell, none branched either in the fore wing or in the hind wing. Of compara- 

 tively small size generally very robust build and rapid flight. Antenna wide 

 apart at base, with a thick club or strong, curved hook at the tip. Palpi short, 

 broad, closely pressed against the face, densely scaled on the first and second 

 joints. Hind legs generally with a pair of moveable spurs or spines at the end 

 of tibiae and another pair at the middle ; middle legs with a pair of moveable 

 spines at end of tibiae." 



The above is more or less in the words of Marshall and deNice- 

 ville in their " Butterflies of India, Burmah and Ceylon". Colonel 

 Bingham characterizes the family thus, as already given in the key 

 to the Butterflies at the beginning of these papers : — 



" Antennae wide apart at base ; hind tibiae generally with a medial as well as 

 terminal pair of spurs ; all veins in the fore wing from base or from cell ; none 

 forked or coincident beyond." 



To this may be added that the eggs are generally few and nearly 

 always more or less dome-shaped, either smooth or longitudinally 

 ribbed more or less strongly, sometimes serrate along the ribs, some- 

 times tuberculate (rarely). 



The larvae are fusiform, the anal end rounded, sometimes flattened, 

 the head always conspicuously broader and higher than the neck ; 

 no projections of any sort either on the head or on the body in the 

 mature state though (Gmigara for example) there may be a cereous 

 excretion taking the form of threads that rub oif easily. 



The pupae are moth-like in all cases, nearly always smooth, with- 

 out processes of any kind and are attached by the tail and a body- 

 band. 



The habits of the butterflies differ somewhat according to genera 

 and species but the flight is very rapid in the great majority and of 

 a jerky nature in all. Some of the insects are diurnal, some crepus- 

 cular in their habits, a few, apparently, even nocturnal {Ismene goma- 

 ta). The larvae live in cells formed of leaves or sections of leaves 

 in various characteristic ways and the pupation takes place often 

 within them, though many larvae wander and make special 

 arrangements ; Baoris, Udaspes pu23ating more or less in the open 



