Jfo. L] Rhopalocera. 13 



wing considerably more prominent. The underside of both wings of both 

 sexes is pale brownish, crossed by numerous more or less broken prominent 

 white lines. The expanse of the open wings is about an inch and a half. 



It is almost certain that this butterfly, at low elevations, flies all the 

 year round, and that there are a constant succession 

 of broods. The female probably lays her eggs on 

 the flower buds of the cardamoms {Elettaria cardamomum),a,s is the case 

 with another Lycsenid {Firachola isocrates, Fabrieius) whose larva lives 

 on fruit. The young larva emerges from the egg within a very few days 

 and commences to eat the flower bud or young fruit, burrowing into its 

 centre for that purpose. 



Mr. Green describes the larva when full-fed as " dull, pale green, 

 tinged with red on dorsal area ; three reddish narrow dorsal stripes ; 

 spiracles minute, black ; head small, brown, retracted beneath the second 

 segment ; length "55 of an inch. Pupa smooth, pale dull yellowish-brown, 

 marbled and spotted with dark brown, spots coalescing into three irregular 

 dorsal stripes." An allied species, L. (Eliamis, Fabrieius, has been bred 

 by the writer in Calcutta on the leaves of Eeynea trijuga, Koxburgh, and 

 in Java by Dr. Horsfield on Butea frondosa. It is most singular that 

 two species of one genus should have such dissimilar habits. Only two 

 other genera of Indian Lycmnidce are known to live on fruits, Virachola 

 with two species, Dewdorix with one. 



Within the fruit all its larval state is passed ; it grows with the fruit and 

 lives on the fruit entirely, probably never venturing outside unless the fruit 

 to which it has hitherto been attached should for any reason become unsuit- 

 able to it, when it would seek a fresh one, and immediately bore into its 

 centre. When full-fed, Mr. Green surmises that it leaves the fruit, and 

 turns to a pupa or chrysalis amongst the shrivelled leaves and stalks. This 

 is contrary to my experience of the habits of V. isocrates and V. perse 

 which, in nature, usually pupate within the fruit on which they have lived. 

 The pupal state would last but a few days probably, when the butterfly 

 would appear, and the second cycle of life begin by the females laying a 

 new batch of eggs. • As the cardamom grows, as far as I know, in South 

 India and Ceylon only, it is certain that it cannot be the legitimate food- 

 plant of this butterfly throughout its great range. Mr. Green, however, 

 appears to have been the first to breed the insect, and thus to discover at 

 least one of its food- plants. It is probable, like other pests, that L. elpis 

 feeds upon some jungle plant, but that, finding the cultivated cardamoms 

 quite to its taste, it has taken to them and rapidly increased in numbers, 

 owing to its new food-plant being provided for it in such great abundance. 



Mr. Owen estimates the damage done by this pest to be sometimes 



^ ... as much as 80 to 90 per cent, to young planta- 



Damage of the pest. . -»«■/- •, -i • •? * 



tions. Mr. Green states that " ordinarily from 5 



to 10 per cent, of the fruit capsules are perforated by this insect." 



