28 
SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
Common in the hill districts between about 1,000 and 4,000 feet 
elevation. At Madulsima I found it common about half an hour 
before sunset on a bank covered with rough herbage. This moth 
seems especially attached to Ageratum conyzoides (“ White Weed ”) 
from which I have often disturbed it, but a search on this plant has 
failed to reveal the larva. 
Outside of Ceylon, T. wahlbergi has been recorded from South 
Africa, St. Helena (? introduced), and Queensland. 
Early Stages. —The early stages and food plant are as yet unknown 
(unless the larva described under T. xerodes belongs to this species). 
Eggs laid by captured moths, however, are of a smooth elongate- 
oval shape and of a very pale shining greenish-white colour. In 
size they are about • 47 mm. long by about * 32 mm. broad and * 28 
mm. high, a transverse section thus being oval. The newly-hatched 
larva is whitish, with a black head and long black dorsal hairs. 
i - Trichoptilus congrualis, Wlk . 
(Plate A., figure 8.) 
Gongrualis. —Wlk., Cat. XXX., 943 ; Wlsm., P. Z. S., 1885, 885 ; 
Swinhoe, Cat. Moths, India, No. 4,545 ; Meyr., T. E. S., 1907, 473. 
Oxydactylus., —Wlk., Cat. XXX., 944; Wlsm., P. Z. S., 1885, 885; 
Swinhoe, Cat. Moths, India, No. 4,549; Moore, Lep. Ceylon, III., 
529, t. 209, f. 16. 
Ochrodactylus .—Eish, Canad. Entom., XIII., 142; Fernald, 
Pter. North America, 1898, 2nd edit., p. 15. 
Centetes.-M.eyv., T. E. S., 1886,16; 1 c., 1887, 266; Wlsm., P. Z. S., 
1891, 494; 1 c., 1897, 56. 
Compsochares. —Meyr., T. E. S., 1886, 16. 
Ralumensis. —Pag., Zoolog., XXIX., 239. 
Distribution. — Jaffna, Mankulam, Anuradhapura, Kegalla, 
Colombo, Barberyn Island, Ambalangoda, Galle, Hambantota, 
Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Habarane, Undugoda, Maskeliya.* 
Abundant in all the sandy waste places of the low-country where 
the food plant grows. 
Outside of Ceylon this species has been recorded from Florida 
and the West Indies, from South and East Africa, from India to 
New Guinea and N. E. Australia, and from China, and I have found 
it abundantly in theChagos Islands, Farquhar Island, the Amirantes, 
and Coetivy. It probably occurs in the Maldives also, though not 
yet recorded thence. 
* A single specimen taken by Mr. J. Pole on December 5, 1908, at Deeside 
Trigonometrical Station (4,900 feet); doubtleS a straggler or casual immigrant 
in the Maskeliya district, as I have never seen its food plant (Boerhavia repens ) 
at any height greater than about 1,300 feet, and at this elevation only along 
the road between Taldena and Badulla, whither it seemed to have been 
carried from the low-country by cart traffic. Mr. Pole, however, has since 
informed me that he has met with this plant “ once or twice on the cart road 
side near a factory in Maskeliya.” 
