1900.] L. de Niceville — Butterflies of the Kanara District. 243 



conspicuous. Body surface very finely covered with minute tuber- 

 cular grannies which sometimes coalesce into lines. Colour very dark 

 rosy-brown, lighter on the abdomen and dorsum ; a dorsal light brown 

 line on segments 2 to 4 ; a row of two or three light brown spots 

 parallel to the margins of the segments on each side of the dorsal line 

 on segments 6 to 10. Underparts of pupa light rosy-brownish-yellow. 

 The pupa is fastened by the tail and a median band. Total length 

 14 mm., breadth at segment 7 is 6*5 mm., height at the apex of the 

 thorax 5 3 mm., breath at the shoulders 5 mm. 



Habits. The eggs are laid singly or in tows and threes on leaves, 

 leaf stalks, stems and twigs, even on the trunk of the tree, generally in 

 cracks, crevices, or axils. One female lays many on the same tree. The 

 butterfly is fond of the sun, and sits for long periods on one leaf basking 

 with closed wings, sometimes on a twig, stem, or trunk of a tree ; with 

 care it can be caught in the fingers, but once on the wing its flight is ex- 

 tremely rapid though not sustained. The larva from the first moult makes 

 a house or shelter for itself by turning over a bit of the edge of a leaf, 

 fixing it and lining it with silk, and eating holes all round through both 

 the layers of the leaf except on the outer side ; it makes new nests as 

 required, feeding always on the tender leaf on which is its house. It 

 wanders off to some crevice in the bark, hole in the tree, or even down 

 to the ground, to pupate, getting under a dead leaf, or clod of earth, or 

 into a hole in the ground, in the latter case. A dozen pupae are some- 

 times found together. The butterfly is difficult to kill by squeezing. 

 Some of the larvae are attended by ants of the genus Gremastogastei\ 

 some are not : at any rate the ants do not appear to care much for them, 

 as they will leave them on the slightest alarm. The pupa3 are sometimes 

 attended by these same ants. The reason the butterfly is so rare is 

 most probably because the tree on which the larva feeds is, as a general 

 rule, about 150 feet in height, with a clear stem of some 60 feet, and 

 the butterflies keep to the top. The reason of the success in obtaining 

 so many larvae and pupas was that extensive cuttings of this tree had 

 taken place, and there were large areas covered with young stool-shoots. 

 Generally, at other times, and in other places the butterflies— or what 

 was presumed to be this butterfly — have been noticed flying round and 

 basking on the leaves of the tops of high trees of Trewia nudiflora, Linn. 

 The known range of this butterfly is curious, as it is recorded only 

 from Tenasserim in Burma and from the Nilgiri Hills and North Kanara 

 in South-Western India. The female has hitherto only been recognised : 

 Mr. Bell has sexed when freshly caught and newly emerged all the 

 specimens (a large number) in his collection. The male can hardly be 

 said to differ superficially from the female, it is usually somewhat 



