COMMON BUTTERFLIES OF THE PLAINS. 79 



with a very small, annular spot on the discocellulars. Cilia white. Antennts, 

 head, thorax and abdomen black, the antennse speckled and tipped with 

 white, the thorax clothed with long, bluish-grey hairs; beneath: palpi, thorax 

 and abdomen white. Female, upperside ; very similar to the male, the 

 terminal bands brownish rather than black. Underside: base and cellular area 

 on fore wing white suffused with greenish yellow ; costa and apex of fore 

 and the whole surface of the hindwing pale ochraceous ; the forewing with 

 the black spots as in the male, the hindwing, in a few specimens, with an 

 anterior, post discal, sometimes somewhat obscure, macular, incomplete band 

 (indications of the same in some males). 



Dry-season brood. — Male and female : similar to male and female of wet- 

 season brood but on the upperside the black markings are duller in tint and 

 narrower, while on the underside in both sexes the costal and apical areas 

 on the fore and the whole surface of the hindwing vary from pale ochraceous 

 to dark reddish-ochraceous. Expanse 40-50 mm. 



Egg. — The egg is white when laid, then turns yellowish and gets three, 

 more or less regular, very broad, reddish bands round it : the first just 

 above the base, the second round the middle, the third a quarter of the 

 height below the top. The shape is like a long dome ; there are 16 to 18 

 longitudinal ribs from base to top, 12 of which actually reach the top Avhere 

 their points form a low crown round the micropyle ; the ribs are prominent 

 and more or less triangular in section, the intervals being very distinctly 

 striated with numerous parallel ridges ; the space round the micropyle is 

 smooth for a short distance ; the surface of the egg is shiny. H. 0'8 mm. ; 

 B. 0-3 mm. 



Larva. — The larva is somewhat more narrowed than that of amata in 

 segments 2, 13, and 14 ; it is stout and cylindrical in segments 4-12 ; 

 the head is slightly broader than segment 2, round from front view with the 

 neck rather distinct and is somewhat flattened on face ; the clypeus is large 

 and triangular ; the surface is dull and covered with minute, whitish tuber- 

 cles from each of which springs a short, semi-erect, dark hair ; the colour is 

 grass-green with the labrum white but slightly washed with brown ; the 

 jaws, somewhat broadly black-tipped, and the second antennal joint also 

 white ; the labrum green and shining ; the basal antennal joint green ; the 

 eyes brown. The surface of the body is dull, soft-looking, covered some- 

 what sparsely with minute, dull, light-yellow and whitish spots and many 

 soft, short, lightish hairs which are not readily visible to the naked eye ex- 

 cept along the subspiracular region where they form a whitish-looking, 

 short fringe visible in some lights. Spiracles are small, brown-pink, oval, 

 placed on an indistinct, lightish, spiracular line. Anal flap rather large, 

 dorsally somewhat flattened, somewhat flanged round edges, trapeze- 

 shaped, the dorsal slope being slight. The colour of the body is a fine 

 grass-green with an indication of a spiracular light line ; the ventrum some- 

 w^hat lighter in shade as well as all the true legs and claspers. All legs and 

 claspers are rather small and the anal ones are hidden from above by the 

 over-reaching anal flap. L : about 20 mm. ; B : 4 mm. 



The yellow body-spots are really minute tubercles, one subdorsal, dorso- 

 lateral and supraspiracular to each segment, each bearing a short, dark, erect 

 hair ever so little longer than the other lighter body-hairs (though shorter 

 than the fine, soft, subspiracular fringe) and there is a small, bare space round 

 each such tubercle. Captain Frazer {vide above under " Colotis protractus ") 

 states that " first skin bears a shiny, jet-black head ; body grass-green with 

 crimson stippling laterally which, in the posterior three segments spreads 

 upwards and meets that of the opposite side, so as to form a more or less 

 prominent, crimson patch. This stippling fades during succeeding moults 

 and is entirely lost after the last. The black colour of the head gradually 



