76 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



pxipse are never found together. The little larva eats its way out 

 through the side near the top and alwaj^s makes its first meal of the 

 shell. The separation of the larv^ into batches later on is determin- 

 ed by the carrying space of the leaf ; when the crowd becomes too 

 large for one, it breaks up into parties, and, before pupation, as 

 already remarked, each individual goes its own way. Some of the 

 larvEe gTow much slower than the others, depending chiefly upon the 

 greater or less ability to obtain sufficient food within a given time. 

 At the commencement of life the little caterpillars as often as not 

 sit on the underside of the leaf while feeding ; there does not seem 

 to be any preference for the upper or the underside. The butterfly 

 is not a strong flier, keeps nearly always near to the ground though 

 of course it rises to the tops of the food plants when looking for 

 females or, more seldom, when seeking a place to lay its eggs ; the 

 flight is fluttering and, except when engaged in business, fairly 

 straight ahead and horizontal. The insects are not often found 

 frequenting flowers ; they often rest with the wings held partially 

 open, on the top of a leaf in the sun ; but repose, with them closed 

 over the back, at night and in rainy weather, on a stem, twig, 

 underside of a leaf, grass-stalk, &c., in thickets and amongst the 

 undergrowth. They like open places and are fond of the sun like 

 others of the genus ; but are never found in the jungles along the 

 Ghats. The reason for this is the absence of the food-plant which 

 is essentially a species of waste, desert places. The larva feeds upon 

 Salvadora loersica and oleoides as well as upon Azima tetracantha, all 

 belonging to the Salvadoracece. The first is found along the sands 

 on the Bombay sea-coast about Bandra and also in Kanara further 

 south ; the butterfly is found there too ; in the latter District it is 

 the only place where it exists ; its distribution is given as continental 

 and peninsular India but not in Bengal and Ceylon. Outside 

 British India it is found in Aden, probablj'' throughout Arabia, in 

 Madagascar and Tropical Africa. 



In a brood of, say, 50 individuals there will always be a couple of 

 white females and this seems to be quite independent of climate as 

 such have been bred both in Bijapur in the Bombay Presidency 

 where the rainfall is very scant}?", the j ungle nil and the countrj^ flat, 

 and in Kanara on the sea-coast where the rainfall is over 100 inches 

 with plenty of hills and jungle close to. However, in the damp 

 places the black markings on the upper sides of the wings in all 

 specimens are larger and more intense. 



117. Colotis protractus. — Male, upperside: rich salmon-pink. Forewing: 



base bkiish-grey ; a band along the costal margin black and joined on to 

 a very broad, similarly-coloured band on termen that occupies the outer 

 fourth of the wing ; inner margin of terminal band irregular, extended 

 slightly and squarely inwards in interspaces la, 1 and 3 ; a prominent, oval, 

 discocellular, black spot extended downwards from the black on the costal 

 margin ; apex with elongate, bluish-grey spots in interspaces 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 



