Page:Life-histories of Indian insects - Microlepidoptera - T. Bainbrigge Fletcher.djvu/81

T. BAINBRIGGE FLETCHETl 23 PLATYPTILIA CACALI^, n. sp. . - ' , ^'3 • ^ Male and female. Expanse IG mm. Palpi povrect; short, second joint dilated with scales, third with short rough scales, short, acuminate ; greyish, fuscous externally. Head greyish-fuscous. Antennae greyish, obscurely ringed with fuscous. Thorax greyish-fuscous. Legs whitish, dilated with brownish scale-tu.{ts at apices of tarsi ; posterior tibiae greyish, irrorated with fuscous and ob.^curely broadly banded at origins of spurs which are whitish, brownish at base and apex. Abdomen moderately long, greyish, irrorated with fuscous which tends to form a patch in middle of back, Forewing cleft from about | : first segment broadening posteriorly, apex falcate, posterior angle well marked ; second segment broadening posteriorly, both angles well marked, termen sinuately convex : brownish-grey irrorated with white and reddish-brown : costal area strongly irrorated with blackish ; an elongate blackish dot in cell beyond 1/3 ; a large blackish costal triangle at 2/3, its apex running obliquely into basal half of second segment, its outer edge irregular and not touching base of cleft ; first segment with very ill-defined whitish bars at and f , first only evident towards costa, second followed by a clearly-defined terminal blackish suffusion narrowest at apex and broadening regularly to posterior margin of segment ; second segm.ent with clearly defined blackish suffusion on posterior fourth, preceded by an ill-defined whitish bar. Cilia on costa blackish with a few scattered whitish scales, beyond costal triangle narrowly whitish, and mixed with whitish before apex ; on termen ochreous-white^ black at base ; within cleft ochreous-white with a few scattered black scales, black opposite terminal black suffusion ; on dorsum ochreous-white with scattered black scales tending to form a broad weak scale- tooth at about 3/5. - . Hind wing cleft from about 2/5 and 1/6 : first segment dilated posteriorly.; second segnient dilated posteriorly, subtriangular, ap^very acute, termen concave, Ineder angle distinct ; third segment sublinear, tornus almost ob- solete : fuscous-grey, irrorated with fuscous-brown. Cilia brownish-grey ; around apex and tip of second segment blackish ; on dorsum paler, with a rather weak black scale-tooth at about |, preceded by a few scattered black scales and followed by a smaller number of weaker black scales. Coimbatore ; 5th December 1917 {Fletcher). Adults flying over flowers of Cacalia coccinea, in the flower-heads of which the larvse and pupse were found. Twelve specimens. This species is superficially very like P. molopias, but is evidently distinct from the form of the pupa. At the time of capture it was supposed to be P. molopias and no description of the larva was made.