COMMON BUTTEBFLIES OF THE PLAINS. 89 



They turn pink before pupation ; and are very subject to 

 parasites, ichneumons and flies being the usual enemies, especially 

 the former ; out of every 1 larvae found, at least six or even 

 more die from this cause. , The pupa is attached very firmlj^ hj the 

 tail to the underside of a leaf or the stalk, or stem of the plant, or 

 a dead twig amongst the rubbish that generally surrounds the 

 bushes of Caclaba inclica, the commonest foodplant. The btitterfl}?- 

 emerges in about a week. It is a somewhat weak flier and hardly 

 ever rises far from the ground, is generally found in numbers near 

 or around the foodplant, of the flowers of which it is very fond and 

 it is most active in bright s^inshine in the middle of the day when 

 it is quite difficult to catch ; it comes easily, however, to a decoy 

 placed on the ground, though only males can Ije thus caught. The 

 female is not often seen somehow, probably it attends strictly to 

 business and keeps to the thickets. The insect rests with its wings 

 closed though not drawn in between each other at all, very frequently 

 on the gromid, less often on the undersides of leaves, twigs, &c. 

 In rainy weather it is possible to catch it in the fingers when thus 

 resting as it becomes more or less stupid in the absence of the drj^, 

 hot sunshine. Its distribution is " Central and Southern India 

 from Bombay to Travancore; Cejdon." It is not found in the 

 jungles at all as it is a Plain Countrj^ species. It is nearly always 

 met with in company of Golotis etrida and C. dance, as the food- 

 plants are the same for the larvee of all three. These foodplants 

 are all of the Caper family and this species has been bred nearly 

 always from caterpillars found on Gadaha indica, a scandent shrub 

 common in waste places and hedges in the Deccan with generally 

 oval, thickish, small, dark green, smooth (except when young when 

 they are lighter, longer and somewhat mealy) leaves, white flowers 

 with a cu.rious pinkish claw and long stamens and a long round pod 

 bursting and curling lengthways to expose the bright red inner 

 part. 



A few days before writing this, numbers of the butterfly were 

 noticed at Bandra on the sea coast north of Bombay in the Thana 

 District ; thej were flj^ing round a single bush of Gadaha which 

 happened to be growing in a hedge round a house on Bandra Hill. 



122. Colotis etrida. — (PI. J. Figs. 67 d",67a$.). — Male, upper side : white, 

 sparsely irrorated at base of fore and hindwings with black scales. 

 Forewing : a small, black spot on the discocellulars ; apex broadly black, 

 with an enclosed, oval, curved, rich orange patch placed obliquely and 

 traversed by the veins which there are black ; inner edge of black area 

 diffuse. Hindwing uniform except for a preapical, short diffuse, black 

 streak from costa, sometimes absent and a series of terminal, black spots 

 that, in specimens from moist localities, are very large. Underside : white, 

 •cell and apex of forewing suffused with sulphur-yellow, the orange patch 

 of the upperside shows through by transparency, its inner edge margined 

 anteriorly by a very oblique, obscure, fuscous fascia. Hindwing : the 

 preapical, short, transverse, black streak on the upperside obscurely 



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