THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 247 



round the mouth of each hole and performing all the cleaning out opera- 

 tions with great regularity. The larva never leaves the fruit till full-grown 

 [this is doubtful ; I think it often seeks a fresh fruit, as I have frequently 

 found a small fruit with the whole interior eaten and quite clean, and no 

 pupa or pupa-skin, so in all probability the larva which inhabited that fruit 

 had left it and sought another,] and then it descends the bark and seeks 

 some crevice, crack or knot in the stem of the tree, and there undergoes its 

 transformations. The ants, as far as I could see did not convey the 

 larvae to their nest at the foot of the tree, but as there were many larvae 

 on the tree and few pupse, some may have been removed to their nest. 

 [These missing pupse were probably inside the fruit.] I was unable to 

 find any eggs on the fruit or flowers, nor have I ever observed the ants 

 ' milking ' any of the larvae, nor any appearance of tentacles being 

 present. The larva spins a slight but strong web from its mouth with 

 which it binds the fruit to the stalk to prevent its being blown off by the 

 wind, and later uses the silk to fasten itself to by the tail when ready to 

 change to a pupa. The pupa is also attached by two threads flatly to 

 the trunk, and is of a pinkish-brown colour like the bark of the pome- 

 granate tree, with various speckles and marks of a darker brown, and a 

 dark dorsal line dividing it down the centre. The head of the pupa is 

 covered with a kind of plate rounded in front, straight at the neck." For 

 my own part I have never seen ants attending the larvae, nor have I been 

 able to find the special organs affected by them, and without these I fail 

 to see why ants should take any trouble for the larvae. 



" It is almost impossible with the net to get a really good specimen 

 of V. isocrates or of V. perse. They are not only difficult to catch, but 

 exceedingly swift, wary, and given to settling on high trees, but, when 

 caught, difficult to secure without injury. There is a delicate bloom on a 

 fresh specimen which the gentlest touch destroys. It is easily reared 

 however. As is well known, the larva feeds inside the fruit of the pome- 

 granate, and sometime before becoming a pupa eats* its way through 

 the tough rind and fastens the fruit with silk to its stalk, thus 

 preventing it from falling off in case it should wither before the butterfly 

 escapes, as it generally does. This operation is performed at night, and 

 generally repeated night after night. I have taken a pomegranate 



*This statement is slightly misleading. From the very earliest stages the young 

 larva makes a hole in the fruit, which it gradually enlarges as it grows, and through 

 which it throws out its dejections. At any period the larva can leave the fruit in which 

 it lives, and in fact not infrequently does so, entering a fresh fruit which suits it better. 



