above red, thorax clothed with long yellow, sometimes greenish hairs, abdomen pale yellow; beneath: palpi and thorax pale to dark yellow, abdomen white." Life cycle Egg The eggs of the butterfly are laid on various species of plants including several Cassias. Other host plants include Butea monosperma, Cassia fistula, Bauhinia species, Pterocarpus indicus, Senna alata and Sesbania species. The eggs are usually laid singly on the underside, at the margin of the leaves. Each egg is white, bottle shaped, and ribbed vertically. The eggs hatch in 3–4 days. Caterpillar (larva) The newly hatched caterpillar is about 0.5 cm long and is yellowish green. In later instars the colour changes to a leafy green. The head is green and spotted with tiny black tubercules. The spiracles are covered with a continuous white line. Each segment of the body bears tiny shiny black tubercules. The tubercules immediately above the spiracular line being larger and more distinct giving the effect of a black line over the white spiracular line. The paired lines are found on both sides of the body and run from head to anus. The similar Catopsilia pyranthe caterpillar has a much broader black line leaving only a narrow green line on the back of the body. The larva is described by Thomas Reid Davys Bell as "The head is round, green, the clypeus edged with brown, covered with small shiny black tubercles which... do not hide the colour of the head; the anal flap is rounded, but looks square at the extremity, and is covered with rows of small black tubercles... of which only the row along the spiracular line is conspicuous. The spiracles are oval, shiny and white. The colour is green with a spiracular white band touched with bright yellow on segments 2-5, and these segments, especially 3 and 4, are distinctly flanged on the spiracular line. Length 51 mm. Chrysalis (pupa) Pupation takes place low to the ground. The pupa is suspended by a silken body band and attached to the substrate by a black cremaster. Its entire body is bright leaf green. A continuous yellow runs from the cremaster to the head, the head ending in a snout. In the similar Catopsilia pyranthe the snout is short. The pupa is described by Bell as "The pupa has the dorsal line of the thorax absolutely parallel to the longitudinal axis of the pupa for two-thirds of its