38 LEPIDOPTERA INDICA. 



the third, sixth, and twelfth segment, is a pair of short black fleshy ten taenia, one 

 on each side, those on the front segment longest. 



" Adult Caterpillar. — Length, li inch. Body cylindrical, ground colour and 

 general description same as after first moult, with the exception that the tentacula are 

 long and movable, ad libitum, by the caterpillar. Each of these tentacula spring 

 from an elevated crimson base. 



" Chrysalis. — Suspended by the tail ; clear cream colour or semi-transparent 

 green; short and thick; somewhat cylindrical, much swollen at the base; tail black; 

 a transverse ridge of yellow bordered by black, and iridescent, extending in a semi- 

 circle only across the back, some golden spots round the head." {Gapt. H. L. de la 

 Ghatimette, MS. Notes.) 



Habitat. — Throughout India ; Burma ; Nicobars ; Ceylon. 



Heterop(ecilic Aberration. — The butterfly represented on our Plate 8, figure 1 e, 

 is a variety of the female of this species, in which the ground colour is very bright, 

 the white subapical oblique markings being elongated and partly confluent. It was 

 taken by Col. C. Swinhoe at Poona, in September. 



Djchroic Chrysalides. — The chrysalides of L. clirysippus are of two colours, 

 some being bright green, and others pale pinkish wax-white. Mr. Wood-Mason 

 (Butt. Ind. i. 51) " has ascertained that this difference in colour is not sexual, males 

 and females being produced indifferently from green and pink chrysalides, and he 

 considers that we here have to do with an instance of the same animal at the same 

 stage of its development being protected by its resemblance to two different parts of 

 the plant on which it feeds and resides, namely, the leaves and the blossoms, the 

 green chijsalides matching green leaves, and the pink ones being of a colour hkely 

 to be mistaken by birds, reptiles, and predaceous insects for a blossom." 



Food plants and habits of Larva. — The larva of i. chrysippus feed on the leaves 

 and flowers of the 'Madar' {Galotropis gigantea) and on the Swallow Wort {Asclepia 

 curassavica). It is generally solitary; sometimes two or three are found together. 



Distribution within Indian area. — This is reckoned to be the commonest and most 

 widely spread of all the Indian butterflies. No locality seems to be unsuited to it. 

 Up to a level of 7000 feet it may be found anywhere in the Indian Empire, but 

 perhaps the dry, hot plains of Northern India are on the whole the most congenial 

 to it, for it is there that it is most conspicuous, as it is almost the one solitary species 

 that can thrive in the dust and glai'e. It seems, moreover, to be as indifferent to 

 season as it is to locahty, and in the Plains of North India it is to be found through- 

 out the year, though most abundant in the winter months. Oalyin the Hills does 

 its appearance seem to be governed by season. It has, however, not been recorded 



