Page:Life-histories of Indian insects - Microlepidoptera - T. Bainbrigge Fletcher.djvu/38

T. BAINBRIGGE FLETCHER 9 (Ceylon), Palni Hills, Shevaroys, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Mercara, Pollibetta, Sidapur, Pusa, Shillong, Bhim Tal, Abbottahad, Peshawar and Parachinar. The egg has been described as "of a smooth elongate-oval shape and of a very pale shining greenish-white colour. In size it is about 0"47 mm. long by about 0'32 mm. broad and 0'28 mm. high, a transverse section thus being oval. The newly-hatched larva is whitish, with a black head and long black dorsal hairs "{^). The full-grown larva is about 6'5 mm. long and about r25 mm. broad, cylindrical, slightly tapering towards either extremity, segments distinct, pale yellow slightly tinged with greenish ; head pale yellow with some faint pinkish blotches and bearing longish hairs, these hairs especially evident on the front and some of them being knobbed apically ; other segments with a distinct pinkish-brown mid-dorsal stripe and with interrupted lateral stripes, ventral area pale greenish-yellow ; tubercles rather protuberant, each bearing a tuft of hairs of different lengths, the post-spiracular tubercle only havihg a single hair ; short secondary hairs scattered over segments ; spiracles protuberant, tubular ; five pairs of equally developed, rather long, pale yellow prolegs. The larva feeds upon Oxalis sp., pupation taking place upon a leaf of the foodplant. The pupa is pale apple-green with whitish hairs as shown in figure. SPHENARCHES CAFFER, ZELL. (PLATE II.) Oxyptilus caffer, Zeller, Linn. Ent. VI, 348-349 (1852) (i). Sphenarches caffer, Wlsm., Ind. Mus. Notes, II, 20 figs. (2) ; Cotes, I.e., p. 163 (3) ; Meyr., Fauna Geogr. Maldives, I, ii. 125(-^) ; Lefroy, Ent. Mem., I, 220('^) ; Fletcher, Spolia Zeylan., VI, 21-22, t. E fE. 8, 10, t.F f.ll (1909)(«) ; Lefroy, Ind. Ins. Life, p. 528, f .343 (1909)(7) ; Fletcher, T. L. S. (2) XIII, 399 (1910)(8), South Ind. Ins., pp. 443-444, f.320 (1914)(9), Proc. Second Entl. Meeting, pp. 44, 56, 306 (tab.) (1917)(io). Oxyptilus anisodaetylus, Wlk., Cat. XXX, 934 (I864)(i') ; Moore, Lep. Ceylon III, 528(i2);^A<-, ^^^ '9*^^^ - ['1^'-) Pterophorus diffusalis, Wlk., Cat. XXX, 945 (1864)('^),- k^.^, ^r ^^>r.... Oxyptilus walkeri, Wlsm., T. E. S. 1881, 279-280 (1881)(i^). Sphenarches synophrys, Meyr., T. E. S. 1886, 17-18 (1886)(i^). This is a remarkably widely-distributed species ranging through the whole of West, South and East Africa, the Seychelles and Maldive Islands, Ceylon, throughout India, Burma, the Philippines, Japan, Sumatra, Java, '^Jl^Q, throughout Australia, New Hebrides, Tonga Islands, and the West Indies. This distribution has perhaps been caused to some extent by human agency.