LYC2ENID2E. 
425 
The pupa is rounded, humped at the thorax, constricted behind the 
thorax, and flattened below, usually smooth. It is attached by the cre¬ 
master and usually by a girdle. 
The butterflies are day-flying, fluttering about in grass and low her¬ 
bage, the larger forms being strong fliers. Hibernation in this group 
is commonly in the imago stage in the plains and there are two or several 
broods in the year, depending upon food-supply. None are serious pests 
except Virachola isocrates, which works havoc in plantations of pomegra¬ 
nate. 
Lycsenids have not been collected in India to the extent that other 
butterflies have, and there are fewer data in the case particularly of 
distribution. The species common in the plains are far less well known, 
and we have mentioned only those species we are certain are widely 
spread, a very small number considering the large number of forms that 
exist in India. Bingham, who has revised the family in the Fauna of 
India, divides them into seven sub-families. The student should 
see these volumes (Butterflies, Yols. II, III) where the known species 
are described and their larvae. 
Spalgis epius, Westw. (fig. 292), is notorious on account of its (lar¬ 
val) habit of devouring mealybugs ; it is distinctly not vegetarian as 
■'! 
Fig. 294— Spalgis epius, left, male ; right, female. 
are its allies, but lives among colonies of the larger mealybugs and feeds 
on them ; it has been found with Phenacoccus iceryoides, G-r. ; the larva 
is short and thickset, with a thick coating of white mealy wax adhering 
to its short stiff hairs ; its appearance is exactly like that of the clustered 
