136 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. Vt 



4. Thosea cana, Walker. Family Limacodidae. Sub-order 

 Phalsense. Order Lepidoptera. Plate xi, Figs. 1, £ ; ia, ? ; lb, 

 full-grown larva twice enlarged ; \c, cocoon life-size. 



The larvae of Thosea cana, Walker, were found in June feeding 

 on the leaves of the castor-oil plant in Calcutta, and a pair of moths 

 were bred from them in July. I have identified this species as T. 

 cana with much doubt. Sir George Hampson in "The Fauna of 

 British India : Moths," vol. i, p. 378 (1892), says that the male has the 

 antennae bipectinated to the tips, while my male has them simple, 

 neither does his figure of the male nor Dr. Moore's figures of both 

 sexes in " Lep. Cey." agree very well with my specimens. Hampson 

 records the species from Kulu, Sikkim, Poona, the Nilgiris, and 

 Ceylon, with an ochreous race from Dalhousie and Murree. In my 

 specimens the male is brown white, the female is ochreous. During 

 my absence my assistant Mr. Peal drew up the following description 

 of the earlier stages: — YOUNG larva : Length 8^ mm. Shape 

 elongate-elliptical ; the sides of the body sloping inwardly giving it a 

 triangular form ; the dorsal area rather flat. The body bears forty 

 tubercles in four rows, ten in a row, two subdorsal, two sublateral ; 

 the tubercles covered with a large number of whitish hairs, each 

 hair black-tipped. Colour : on dorsum a narrow central bluish line, 

 bounded on each side by a green line, and then by a lemon-yellow 

 line, the green and lemon-yellow lines of equal diameter, the central 

 bluish line one-third as wide as the others ; the green lines are 

 clouded with purple as far as the third pair of tubercles. The dor- 

 sal tubercles are yellow, the anterior pair reddish. The rest of the 

 body is light green. Head greenish, except the mandibles which 

 are brown. The dorsal and sublateral tubercles are united each to 

 each by a ridge running diagonally down the side. OLDER LARVA: 

 Length 11^ mm. Similar in colour to the young larva. The raised 

 ridges on the sides which join the tubercles and the interspaces of 

 which form shallow pits, are edged with yellow. FuLL-GROWN LAR- 

 VA : Length 20 mm. The dorsum is more suffused with yellow than in 

 the earlier stages ; the tubercles are still small, and no longer than 

 in the larva at the second stage. The spiracles, one behind each of 

 the sublateral row of tubercles, are light brown ; the true or thoracic 

 legs exceedingly small and pale coloured ; there is a cream-coloured 

 sublateral line below the spiracles. In one specimen (out of two 

 examined) there are two claret-coloured patches on the dorsum between 

 the third and sixth pairs of tubercles, both patches (which only cover 

 the green lines) divided into two by the dorsal blue line. COCOON. 

 Length 10 mm. Shape oval, hard, dirty-brown in colour, attached 



