122 LEPIDOPTERA INBIOA. 



Habits slow. Went into clarysalis 31st August. Chrysalis (pendulse) green, witt 

 a little brown fascia on either side. Imago emerged 7th September " (From 

 original MS.) 



Notes on Habits of Imago. — In the Western Himalayas " these insects 

 inhabit dark, thickly shaded, gloomy hill-slopes clad with oak (Quercus incana) and 

 creel (Pinus longifolia). On very hot days, they may be seen flying with a short 

 jerky fliight in the shade of the trees, just within the line of sunlight. On sucb days 

 it is curious, as you tread the forest path, to see it rise suddenly at your feet, and 

 disappear as quickly within a yard. On the wing it is of course plainly seen, 

 except in very dark corners, but the moment it settles among the dry spikes of the 

 pines, and the brown scanty vegetation which struggles for bare existence under 

 these trees, it is lost, and it requires much experience of its ways and keen eyes to 

 find it lying within a foot or two of your path. The genus Melanitis mimics on the 

 underside of the wings many species of fungi, and this, with the sober colouring of 

 the upperside, increases the difficulty of finding the insect amid the debris of the 

 forest ; the underside is very variable, scarcely two being exactly alike, and this 

 may arise from the fact that they mimic the fungus most common at the time and 

 place of flight " (Rev. J. H. Hocking, Sci. Gossip, 1882, 271). In Southern India 

 " these are insects of the dusk, coming out after the sun is down, and dancing round 

 the roots of trees in company, after the manner of fairies. A httle later they come 

 out of their haunts and fly straight up into the air as far as the eye can follow them. 

 They are thirsty creatures, and will gather in numbers where water has been spilt 

 on the ground, but they prefer whiskey. I found the larvae feeding on grass ; the 

 larvae is difficult to find, being a night feeder and very shy. As the species of grass 

 on which it feeds grows during the monsoon only, except where there is water, this 

 species is in season all the latter part of the rainy season, and in some places for a 

 short time they almost jostle each other for room. About October, when vegetation 

 is drying up, it gives place to the form Ismene. I have noticed it on alighting fall 

 over on its side until it was almost horizontal, which very much enhanced its like- 

 ness to a dead leaf. In Guzerat and Bombay we have reared the larva on Grass. 

 In Karwar we found it during August and September on Rice. It is very shy, 

 resting by day on the underside of a blade and feeding by night " (E. H. Aitken, 

 Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 1886, 129, id. 1890, p. 267). " Larva and perfect 

 insect very common on the Western Coast amongst the long grass. The perfect 

 insect affects dark places during the day time. It seems to me to migrate, and fi-om 

 the mountains to below sometimes in great numbers. I have traced them on the 

 move from 2000 feet high to the sea coast " (S. N. Ward MS. Notes). 



Of our illustrations of this species plate 122 represents the male and female, and 

 larvae and pupas of the wet-season brood, fig. 1 being the larva and pupa reared in 



