Page:Life-histories of Indian insects - Microlepidoptera - T. Bainbrigge Fletcher.djvu/66

20 LIFE-HISTORIES OF PTEROPHORID^ distribution in other regions appears to be natural. It is abundant in India, Ceylon and Burma in every district which has been invaded by Lantana, and we have specimens from Trincomali, Kandy, Haldummulla, Madulsima, Peradeniya, Ootacamund, Sidapur, Pollibetta, Coimbatore, Bababudin Hills, Pusa, Shillong and Maymyc, and also from Honolulu. " The egg is about 0*4 mm. long by about 0*22 mm. broad, and is of a very pale greenish-yellow colour (almost colourless) ; one end seems larger than the other and this larger end is studded with little prominences, especially noticeable in the micropylar area "(°). The egg is 0*33 m.m. long and 0*17 broad, pale yellow, opalescent, in outline ellipsoid, somewhat flattened, translucent, the surface covered with an irregular network of ridges. It is laid among the spines on the sepals of the florets of Lantana camara, sometimes on the leaves or on the petals. (Y. Ramachandra Rao's Lantana Cage-slip 1.) Eggs laid at Coimbatore on 8th-9th December hatched on ]2th-13th December. The newly hatched larva is less than 1 mm. long, pale, translucent, head shiny black, prothoracic shield pale brown. " The larva is stout, pale yellow and naked — at least, no hairs are visible to the unaided eye. The larva is usually found coiled round at the base of the flower-tubes in the interior of a Lantana flower "(■). The larva is about 6 mm. long and about 1 mm. broad, cylindrical, uni- form chrom.e-yellow ; head light brown ; five pairs of sm^all thin prolegs. The larva is found boring the thickened rachis [of Lantana camara] in which its tunnel may be found ; it also bores into the sessile fruits from inside the tunnel only to eat the substance of the seed. It never com.es out cf its tunnel. Before pupating it forms a sort of cocoon by lining the tunnel with white silk and covering the mouth of the tunnel by a silken arch on which black pellets of excrement may remain attached. (Pusa Insectary Cage-slip 815). Besides Lantana camara, the larva feeds in the flowers of Lantana indica and Lippia gemirmta. " The pale yellow pupa is to be found in a sort of chamber gnawed into the side of the fruit receptacle, a regular cocoon being formed of bits of vege- table m.atter spun together with silk. The emerged pupee are usually found projecting half-way out of the cocoon amongst the ripening fruit, such bunches of fruit being far less productive than unattacked ones "(•). The pupa is about 5 mm. long, cylindrical, tapering to a point posteriorly, uniform chrome-yellow ; legs-cases free ventrally and produced nearly to