cliv FAUNA HAWATIENSIS 



these caterpillars prove to belong to the remarkable green-coloured D. smaragditis. 

 Probably other species allied to D. calida remain to be discovered. We have found 

 many larvae of the last named marked with black scars, showing the attack of some 

 parasitic or predaceous insect, but nothing was bred from these. 



PiERiDAE. — Pieris rapae first appeared in 1897, having been, doubtless, introduced 

 with cabbages from California. On the lowlands it abounds chiefly during the winter 

 months and becomes to a considerable extent injurious. All the butterflies produced 

 are of the European summer form, there being no seasonal dimorphism. In dry hot 

 coastal districts the eggs are laid very freely on Capparis sandwichiana of the Cappari- 

 daceae, so that the butterfly is often very abundant in localities, where, at first sight, no 

 suitable food-plant appears to be present. The eggs of Pieris are in some places much 

 destroyed by the little ant Pheidole megacephala, and the caterpillars are preyed on by 

 introduced wasps of the genus Polistes, which strip and carry off portions of them to 

 feed their young. It would appear that as Polistes increases in numbers in the summer, 

 after new colonies have been started by the hibernated females, the Pieris becomes 

 much less numerous, while as soon as the nests of the wasps are deserted and the state 

 of hibernation is begun, the butterflies increase very rapidly and their caterpillars 

 become very troublesome. The well-known parasite Pteroviahis pitparimi, which has 

 several times been imported in great numbers, as an enemy of the Piej'is, is apparently 

 unable to establish itself here. 



Nymphalidae. — Anosia eripptis is no doubt a natural immigrant, which has 

 established itself in the islands since the introduction of the milk weed, on which it 

 feeds, by foreigners. It is found wherever the food-plant grows, and, being a very 

 powerful flier, often in places far distant from this plant. Though very common, it is 

 not, as has been reported by a visiting entomologist, the commonest butterfly in the 

 islands, being much less numerous, for instance, than Lycaena boetica. It is not very 

 variable, though once or twice we have noted melanochroic and albinoic examples on 

 the wing amongst the large numbers seen. The caterpillars are attacked by the 

 common Tachinid fly, Frontina archippivora. 



Vanessa cardiii and Imntera are both natural immigrants, the former feeding mostly 

 on malvaceous plants and introduced thistles, but also on Gjtaphalium, on which the 

 latter habitually feeds. In dry districts on the lowlands both these species become 

 abundant on the appearance of a fresh growth of vegetation following copious rain, but 

 disappear with the di-ying up of low plants. V. cardui sometimes entirely strips the 

 common weeds on which it feeds, so that we have even seen the caterpillars perishino- 

 of starvation. It is sometimes much parasitized by the Tachinid, Frontina. A con- 

 siderable percentage of the Hawaiian cardin are intermediate between the var. 

 kershawi, which has been considered by some a distinct species, and typical cardui. 



