NOTES ON A CATERPILLAR FARM. 285 



on the back a very pale mauve, and closely marked with narrow 

 dark brown transverse rings. They were furnished with eight dark 

 brown tentacles arranged in pairs ; one, long and pointing forward, 

 used as antenna;, above the second pair of legs from the head ; another, 

 shorter, above the third ; another, yet shorter, between the third and 

 fourth ; and another, about the same length as the second, at the taih 

 In assuming the pupa form, which they did when about 2 inches 

 Jong, they underwent a remarkable change. Leaving the food plant, 

 they attached themselves to the undersides of other leaves, where, 

 losing all likeness to caterpillars, and indeed to any living creature, 

 they appeared to turn into unpleasant looking lumps of muddy slime 

 or gum. These gradually assumed shape, hardening and brightening, 

 till on the third day they were unmistakable chrysalises of bur- 

 nished gold, hanging by the ends of their tails, with their heads 

 downwards. The imago appeared in from seven to eight days after 

 the chrysalis had assumed its bright metallic appearance, 



Danais chrysippus. — These were found on Calotropis gigantea* 

 in. our compound, on loth September. In general appearance as to 

 size, shape, tentacles, and dark ring markings of the body, they 

 were not unlike the caterpillars last described, but differed from 

 them in colour, being of a pale blue gray on the back, with yellow 

 sides, and having ten pairs of oval yellow spots edged with black 

 along the back. They assumed the chrysalis form on 17th September 

 in the same position as those last described, and leaving the food 

 plant to do so, but passing through no intermediate slimy stage. Of 

 the chrysalises, one, which was suspended from the brown wood- 

 work of the cage was green, the other, suspended from the white mos- 

 quito net, was pale pink. Both opened on 24th September. We could 

 detect no difference in the butterflies, except that in the one from 

 the green chrysalis the rings round the underside of the abdomen 

 were narrow, black, and continuously linear, while in the other they 

 were broader, brown, and so deflected towards the centre from the 

 sides as to have a somewhat crenate appearance. These butter- 

 flies are imitated by the female of Hypolimnas mussipus. The 

 dichroic character of the pupa is noticed by Messrs. Marshall and de 

 Niceville in their very valuable work on the Butterflies of India, 

 Burma and Ceylon (Vol. I., p. 51), where Mr. Wood-Mason is cited 

 to the effect that the difference in colour is not sexual but a pro tec - 



* Native name, Uudar. 

 38 



