Page:Life-histories of Indian insects - Microlepidoptera - T. Bainbrigge Fletcher.djvu/74

 22 LIFE- HISTORIES OP rTEROPIIORIT)^ At Shillong the larva is found coniiiionly on Teucrium quadrifarium and Scutellaria discolor. Figures 1ft and h are made from spirit specimens of the larva and pupa.

PLATYPTILIA MOLOPIAS, MEYR.
Platyptilia molopias, Meyr., B. J., XVII. 135 nSOG)(') : Fletcher, Spol. Zeylan., VI, 12-13, t..Af. 1, t. Ef. 4 (1909)(^'). ( • L}^ ^^-•Ii•^^This species is common in the Hill Districts of Ceylon but does not appear ^^ ^ mT W^ to have been found in India hitherto. We have it from Maskeliya, Haldum- ^^ ^ mulla and Pattipola. "^^IricU 1 ^^^ ■ " ^iie egg is about 0'47 mm. long by about 03 mm. broad, the micropylar end di tiiictly the larger and flattened ; in colour it is of a very pale green, the surface reticulated with large but shallow rounded depressions. " Larva3 were found on 18th May 1908 at MaduLsima, feeding on the flowers and unripe seeds of Teucrium tomentosum. The larva is of a very pale green colour and is very difficult to discern when in situ o*n the foodplant. Hall-^rown examples often seem to have a narrow reddish medio-dorsal stripe. lacking in adults, which latter have sometimes home lateral reddish markings on the thoracic segments. Like all " plume " larvse, however, this one is very variable in colour, and some examples might be described as reddish with a greenish latero-dorsal suffusion on the abdominal segments. The head is yellowish or pale green, the ocelli very distinctly m^arked in black. The segmental divisions are sharply distinct. All primary hairs are white ; the longest hairs are a little longer than the diameter of the segm.ents on which they arise. The legs are yellowish-green, extremities of claws yellowish. Proleo-s very transparent pale green, hooks reddish. Spiracles very incon- spicuous. Secondary hairs short, black. " The pupa is suspended freely by the tail from an empty flower-sheath of the foodplant. It is rather short, the appendage sheaths very long and well separated. Colour a pale flesh-pink, mottled longitudinally with brown; head and wing-sheaths pale greenish, the latter with longitudinal brown shading. Dorsal prominences sm^all, distinct, subequal, directed forward, except the first, which is extremely large, directed backwards, blunt, but tipped anteriorly with a sharp spine whose point is bent forward. This large prominence is sharply outlined by a deep brown shading which reaches obliquely anteriorly half-way across the wing-cover. A second brown shade, parallel to the first but less intense and narrower, occurs on the sixth segment, but barely reaches on to the wing-sheath. " The moth emerges from the pupa after about a week "(-).