140 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



EARLY STAGES OF INDIAN BUTTERFLIES. 



A new contribution to our knowledge of the early stages of butterflies 

 has come from Bombay^ where Messrs. Davidson and Aitken have 

 published (Journ. Bomb. Nat. His. Soc, Vol. 5,) half a dozen coloured 

 plates, excellently drawn by Mrs. Blathwayt, representing the transforma- 

 tions of sixteen species. Their published notes, however, cover no less 

 than 94 species and run through all the families, and among them will be 

 found many interesting things, — a chrysalis of Elymnias " suspended by 

 the tail only, but in a rigidly horizontal position," a species of Abisara, 

 one of the Lemoniinae, whose larva has the head free, a gregarious 

 Delias where the eggs are laid "in parallel rows with equal intervals," a 

 Papilio laying, like our species of Polygonia, ten eggs in a column, 

 HesperidaJ with fluffy secretions, and some where the transformations are 

 open, and which in some cases have and in some have not a median 

 girth. When we find this as the result of two seasons' work, and most of 

 it of one, we can but wish long life to the authors. Seventy species of 

 butterflies were reared the first year. 



The course of insect life in India is so different from that with which 

 we are familiar, and yet has so many points of contact, that it is worth 

 while to transfer the following passage to our columns : — " In the case of 

 a great many, perhaps the majority, of species, larvae are found 

 plentifully in June or July, that is, a short time after the monsoon bursts 

 and vegetation starts into growth. These become pupse, and for a time 

 not a larva is to be seen ; then the butterflies of that brood emerge and 

 lay their eggs and larvae begin to appear again, but this time they con- 

 tinue for two or three months, in some cases until the end of the year. 

 Then they cease and the butterflies also disappear, but a number of pupa?, 

 and perhaps eggs, remain, to start into life when conditions are again 

 favourable, which will be in March if the food-plant sprouts then, otherwise 

 in June. Of these dormant pupffi a few come out at odd times, but the 

 butterflies thus sent into the world out of season doubtless perish without 

 offspring. This seems to be something like the order of events with 

 many of the common species of Papilio, the Danainre, the Junonias, and 

 others ; but there are many species which do not follow this rule, and 

 some seem to have only one short season in the year." 



