4 8 
NYMPH ALINiE. 
Neptis eurynome, Linn. 
Also known as leucothoe, Cram. One of the commonest and most elegant butterflies 
here, its pattern of black-and-white rendering it very conspicuous. It has a curious and pretty but 
not strong flight, alternately moving its wings rapidly and then sailing along with them extended 
and motionless. It generally keeps much to the same locality, where it often rests on foliage with 
open wings or with the tips slightly below horizontal, like Ergolis and a few other butterflies. It is 
not specially fond of flowers, but may often be seen sucking the overripe berries of Lantana and 
the exudations of bamboo and other plants. I have also seen three or four together feasting on the 
carcass of a cicada, and on the dead locusts still clinging to plants, which abound at certain times 
of the year. N. eurynome is occasionally seized by the head by a little white or yellow hunting—or 
rather ambush—spider, which conceals itself amongst flowers. When resting in the centre of a 
white or yellow flower this spider can hardly be detected till it moves. Neptis is also sometimes 
caught by the tongue or proboscis by an ant, whilst probing a flower, and I have seen this butterfly 
distractedly flying about with an ant clinging to the tip of its tongue. 
Fig. 2, PI. VI is from a $ taken in May. The sexes are alike, and on the wing all the 
year round and in almost every locality. Though it hardly differs seasonally it varies greatly in 
size at all times of the year. 
Egg, sub-globular or somewhat hemispherical, granulated, slightly bristly, green; usually 
attached singly to the upperside of a leaf-tip of the foodplants. 
Larva, figured on PI. 2a, Fig. n, pupa Fig. 12. The larva feeds on a large number of 
different plants, but chiefly on Canavalia gladiata , D.C., and Rhynchosia voliibilis , Lour., 
trailing and climbing plants of wide tropical range ; also on Desmodium pulchellum , Benth., 
Pueraria thunbergiana, Benth., and on a sp. of Lespedeza , all five plants Nat. Ord. 
Leguminosce. It also feeds on Trema amboinensis , Bl., Nat, Ord. Urticece , and on Sterculia 
lanceolata , Cav., Nat. Ord. Sterculacece. It probably feeds on other plants too, but though 
many are of wide range they all appear to be limited to tropical or sub-tropical regions. The 
larvae when young eat curious zig-zag channels in the broad thin-textured leaves of Canavalia , and 
also usually eat away down each side of the mid-rib, leaving this projecting, the larva generally 
resting at the end thereof. 
The pupa is mother-o’-pearl colour; the angles, spiracles and neuration of the wings 
marked out in pale gilt, denoted in the figure by yellow. It is attached by the tip without a band. 
Neptis columella, Cram. 
Common, but not so abundant as the former insect. It has much the same habits as 
N. eurynome, though its flight is rather stronger and it usually rests higher up on bushes and 
trees, being seen but seldom at flowers. The sexes are similar, but the £ is generally lighter in 
