Travancore Evening Brown Parantirrhoea marshalliwas first described in 1880 by J. Wood-Mason in The Journalof Asiatic Society, Bengal. Marshall and de Niceville (1883)stated, “P. marshalli has yet only been found in Travancore,where it was discovered by Mr. H.S. Ferguson on theAshamboo hills in May.” More than 100 years have passedwith only a handful of sightings of this elusive butterfly.Parantirrhoea marshalli is endemic to the southernWestern Ghats of peninsular India and is known to occur fromCoorg to the Ashambu hills. This species could be describedas an entomologic curiosity because it’s nearest related genusAntirrhoea is found flying only in the South American jungles.Both these genera are remarkable for the peculiar arrangementof hindermost veins of the anterior wings. Here, the firstmedian veinlet runs back to the inner angle and the submedianvein ends a considerable distance short of that angle.The species had not been reported since its last sightingby Fraser in 1930 till Elamon (1993) rediscovered apopulation of P. marshalli in the environs of the Periyar TigerReserve in Kerala. Recently, Kunhikrishnan (2002) reportedsightings of this butterfly in the southern region of the WesternGhats. Although both sexes of this butterfly have beenphotographed, not much information is available on the earlystages of this butterfly.A number of authors have written about the perfect formof this species; but the only mention of its suspected hostplants and early stages are in Fraser (1930), Yates (1931),and Wynter-Blyth (1957), Gaonkar (1996). Fraser (1930)mentioned that the larva of P. marshalli feeds on ‘cane’. Yates(1930) enquired, through the Journal of the Bombay NaturalHistory Society, if what Fraser (1930) meant by ‘cane’ wasOchlandra rheedii Benth. & Hook.f. ex Gamble, and askedhim to describe the larva if he had found it.Wynter-Blyth (1957) quoted Yates in his workBUTTERFLIES OF THE INDIAN REGION and suspected that the foodplant was Ochlandra rheedii (Syn: Ochlandra scriptoriaDennst.), as it was always in its clumps that Yates had foundit. Gaonkar (1996) stated that the bamboo Ochlandrascriptoria Dennst. could be a probable larval host plant forP. marshalli and the species was invariably found whereverthis plant was available.