i6o Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. V. 



moth. Hampson's descriptions areas follows: — "Imago pale red- 

 brown ; abdomen pale fuscous, the anal tuft cchreous. Fore wing with 

 a short subbasal red-brown line; an oblique antemedial pale or 

 ochreous line, with diffused red-brown band on its outer edge; a 

 sinuous medial line angled on the median nervure ; the reniform large 

 and indistinct; a red-brown diffused postmedial band, on which is a 

 dark line slightly excurved beyond the -cell, and at vein 2 very irre- 

 gularly recurved to the lower angle of the discoidal cell, then descend- 

 ing to the inner margin ; an indistinct pale waved submarginal line 

 with a series of black specks on it ; a dark waved marginal line. 

 Hind wing ochreous fuscous, with a narrow fuscous medial band and a 

 diffused submarginal band. Legs rufous. Some specimens have a 

 black spot on the fore wing above the inner margin before the middle; 

 the variety gregalis, Guenee, is duller in colour, with the markings 

 of the fore wing obsolescent. Larva purplish brown speckled with 

 black ; the lateral area yellowish with red lines, a sublateral row of 

 small black dots; head with a brown and red lateral streak. Food- 

 plant Desmodium, Natural Order Leguminos£e, Pupa efflorescent. 

 Habitat: Ethiopian and Oriental regions, North China. Expanse: 

 42 — 54 millim. [15 to 2"2 inches.] 



Dr. F. Moore in Lep. Cey. vol. iii, p. 191, under Canninda 

 archesia, gives the following description of the larva : — "Semi- 

 looped ; with twelve legs ; the dorsal and under surface purplish 

 brown, minutely black dotted, the sides yellowish and longitudinally 

 lined with red and a sublateral row of minute black dots: head with 

 a brown and red lateral streak ; front legs red, middle and hind legs 

 brown. Pupa reddish ; efflorescent." 



I made the following description '. — Larva: When full grown at 

 least two inches in length. The usual three pairs of thoracic legs, 

 two pairs of pro or abdominal legs on the ninth and tenth segments, 

 and the usual anal claspers ; these three pairs of legs are furnished 

 with very powerful and effective hooks so that the larva can adhere 

 very closely to any surface on which it places itself. The larva is a 

 semi-looper and can progress very rapidly. It is long in proportion 

 to its girth, cylindrical. It presents a bewildering variety of colora- 

 tion, so that it is impossible to describe all the variations in full. A 

 few of the more striking ones may be mentioned : — The posterior 

 surface very dark, almost black, strongly contrasted with a pale 

 French-grey anterior surface, which is palest (almost white) where it 

 meets the dark abdominal surface, and is divided longitudinally into four 

 broad stripes of various shades, besides a dorsal stripe, each of these 

 stripes is again made up of very fine lines, which under a magnifying 

 glass are seen to be composed of small round closely-set darker spots 



