Page:Life-histories of Indian insects - Microlepidoptera - T. Bainbrigge Fletcher.djvu/30

 8 LlFE-fllSTORlteS OF PT^EROPHOtllD^ green. There is a broad dull reddish longitudinal spiracular stripe, on which the spiracles stand out as pale longitudinal blotches. The medio-dorsal stripe has a faint tinge of red in it, making it a little darker than the ground-colour. On either side of this, bordering the darker brown latero-dorsal tubercles, is a series of whitish longitudinal dashes, forming two interrupted dorsal lines — these markings absent in one larva. Head dark brown. The long hairs are black asid obviously sticky. A younger larva, about half-grown, is dark brown without any obvious markings, the hairs very distinctly clubbed at the apex." " The larva is generally rather sluggish but can be quite active, e.g., if searching for food. If it loses its foothold, it drops by a silken thread. It feeds on the unripe seeds of Boerhaavia repens, comm.encing by eating the viscid exudation on the outside of the perianth tube, through which it then gnaws a hole and excavates the contents. Small insects, especially ants, are often seen to be caught by this gum-m.y secretion, but the gum does not seem to incomm.ode the larvae at all ; probably their extrem^ely long prolegs are specially modified to carry them over it without touching it as they walk, and the long larval hairs prevent contact of the body with neighbouring drops of gum "('*). " The larva seem.s to pupate almost invariably on the slender stem just below a seed-head, although I have once found an empty pupa-case attached to the mid-rib on the under-surface of a small leaf. The pupa hangs freely suspended, the discarded larval skin not being shrivelled up but stretched out at full length along the stem just above it. The rain soon destroys the empty pupa-cases and one finds only the anal portion with the discarded larval skin. The colour of the pupa is very variable ; sometimes it is a light apple-green, sometimes a brownish-grey "(^^). DUCKLER LA. WAHLBERGI, ZELL. (PLATE I, FIG. 2.) Plerophorus wahlhergi, ZelL, Linn. Ent. VI, 346 (1852)(i). Pterophorus ruiilalis, Wlk., Cat. XXX, 943 (1864)(-')- V^^a^TT^^ .h^f. -. Trichoptilus pijrrJiodes, Meyr., Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales (2) IV, 1113 (1889)(3). Trichopiilus wahlhergi, Meyr., B. J., XVII, 134 (1906)(4) ; Fletcher, 8polia Zeylan, VI, 27-28, t. A f . 10 (1909)(^^). Buckleria wahlhergi, Fletcher, T. L. S. (2) XIII, 399, f. 2 (1910)(«). This is a widely distributed species recorded from South Africa, St. Helena, Seychelles, India, C-eylon and Queenslandl**). It is common thi-oughout India and Ceylon and we have it from Kandy, Haldummulla and Madulsima