Page:Life-histories of Indian insects - Microlepidoptera - T. Bainbrigge Fletcher.djvu/29

 T. BAINBRIGGE FLETCHER 7 Triclwptilus congrualis, Fletcher, Spolia Zeylan., VI, 28-30, t. A f. 8, t. F fi. 2, 3 (1909)('^). TrichopfAlus defectalis, Fletcher, T. L. S. (2) XIII, 312 (1909)(''^). BucBeria defectalis, Fletcher, T. L. S. (2) XIII, 398-399 (1910)("'). Originally described from West Africa(') and Ceylon (-• ■^), this is an extremely widely distributed species, recorded from the Southern United States, West Indies, Peru, West, South and East Africa, Mauritius, Farquhar Island, Amirantes, Coetivy, Seychelles, Chagos Islands, Ceylon, India, Fonrosa, China, New Guinea, North-East Australia and Hawaii(i*^). In India and Ceylon this seems to be a Plains species, found abundantly in all sandy areas where its foodplant, Boerhaavia, occurs. We have specimens from Trincom_ali, Colombo, Coimbatore, Pusa, Chapra, Bassein Fort (Bon bay), Lyallpur, Peshawar, and Hangu (Kurram Valley). The following description w^as made from, a larva found at Galle on 10th May, 1907 :— " The larva has just cast its skin (which remains alongside it, uneaten) and is probably just conmiencing its final instar. Length 5-5 mm. Breadth in thickest part (about middle) T 5 mm. Hairs about 1 mm. long. In shape it is cylindrical, moderately stout, tapering at either extremity. When crawling, the thoracic segm.elits, especially the prothoracic, are greatly extended and appear very slender and flattened. The head appears to be uniformly jetty-black, but under a high-pow-er lens the central portion and jaws are seen to be yellowish with a few shoit yellowish hairs. The ground-cokur along the side is a pale yellowish shade of diity grey with a tinge of red (this last colour is more pronounced in som.e specim_ens). There is a narrow^ medio-dorsal stripe of a shade rather darker than the ground-colour and a little redder. On the metathoracic segment the tw^o warts edging the medio-dorsal line are faintly marked with dark reddish-fuscous ; the four succeeding segm.ents have these warts distinctly marked with the same dark reddish-fuscous, and therefore show up like spots. (In other larvse all the dorsal warts are more or less m.arked with dark fuscous, shading off at either extremity of the larva.) A broad but indistinct fuscous subspiracular line. A rather bread ventral pale-greenish stripe. The prolegs are very long and slender and are of a pale greyish greenish-yellow, the hooks dark ; the legs are similarly coloured. The long hairs appear dark but there are numerous minute white knobbed glan- dular secondary hairs scattered over the segments, and these appear to secrete a viscous fluid "('^). Two full-fed larva) found at Colombo on 18th October, 1907, were described as " stout, stoutest about fourth segment, decreasing thence rapidly towards the head, anally gradually. Colour a pale yellow with a faint tinge of fuscous