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THE COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS 

 OF INDIA. 



(INCLUDING THOSE MET WITH IN THE HILL STATIONS 

 OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY). 



T. R. Bell, lf.s. 

 (Gontinuecl from i^age 531 of Volume XXTI.) 



Part XYI. 

 Genus — Colotis. 



This genus is Ethiopian and Indo-Malayan in distribution ; in the limits of 

 British India seven good species are recognized besides some not very- 

 well-defined races. The colours of the members of the genus are character- 

 istic : salmon or white, always with a diagonal black bar across the apex of 

 the forewing outside which, in the white species, there is a red or yellow 

 patch. The black bar may be obsolescent, especially in the dry-season 

 specimens, but is always indicated ; the red or yellow patch may be faded 

 to white in some females. All species are plentiful in the Plains though 

 protractus is somewhat local and seemingly confined to Baluchistan, Sind, 

 the Punjab and Cutch. None are found ordinarily in mountainous tracts, 

 in heavy forest regions where the rainfall is abundant ; thejr want plenty of 

 sun, open country and, perhaps, not too much moisture in the air. However, 

 the distribution probably altogether depends upon the absence or presence 

 of the food plants of the caterpillars. 



116. Colotis amata.^(Pl. J., fig. 68.) — Male, z</>pemcZe, salmon-pink. Fore- 

 wing ; costa black, thickly overlaid with greyish or pinkish scales, a black 

 spot at apex of cell which may be large and quadrate or smaller and lunate ; 

 termen broadly black with an enclosed, double series of spots of the ground- 

 colour — the inner series consists of a large spot in interspace 1, two very small 

 spots in interspaces 2 and 3, one in each, and four larger, anterior spots 

 placed in a curve ; the spots in the outer series are variable in number but, 

 generally, there is one in each interspace, these are more or less linear in 

 shape. Hindwing: a band on costal margin extended to just within the up- 

 per margin of cell, covered with dense, black, specialized scales ; this band 

 joined on to a broad, similarly-coloured, terminal band of ordinary scales, 

 that becomes more or less diffuse and powdery posteriorly and encloses 

 a double series of small spots of the ground-colour, the inner series often 

 obsolescent ; in some specimens entirely absent ; dorsum heavily irrorated 

 with fuscous scales, the irroration extended on to the disc which has, there- 

 fore, a greyish appearance. Underside : greenish yellow ; an anteciliary, 

 fine, black line on both fore and hindwings ; the black markings of the 

 upperside show through by transparency. Forewing : a black spot, variable 

 in size and intensity, in some specimens absent altogether, at apex of cell ; 

 a subterminal, quadrate, black spot in interspace 1 and another (sometimes 

 faint or absent) further outwards in interspace 2 ; disc faintly, dorsal margin 

 broadly, pale salmon-pink. Hindwing : the whole surface sparsely irrorated 

 with minute, black scales ; a small, black, discocellular spot. Cilia of both 

 wings pale salmon-pink. Antennse,. head, thorax and abdomen black, the 

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