32 JOURNAL, B03IBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



of the refuse : a non-descript earthy red-brown. The last stage is 

 Ijrighter, often green in colour with whitish bands and the grub 

 wanders about, resting generally quite openly in the middle of any 

 leaf that comes handy. 



The young stages of many Papilio larvse much resemble the drop- 

 pings of birds being coloured brownish or greenish grey with a white 

 patch in the middle {polymnestor, daksha, poh/tes, &c.), and all these 

 are naked from the first though they have the osmeteria alluded to 

 above ; some others of the same genus are provided with several 

 j)airs of very much branched spines which completely disappear 

 before the last stages are reached {teredon, eurypylus) ; in the 

 Ornithoptera group (minos, hector, aristolochke) the larva smells dis- 

 agreeably : which seems to be sufficient protection. 



As may be supposed the perfect insect or butterfly does not 



need the protection from parasitic insect enemies that is so necessary 



to the earlier stages. Its chief enemies are birds and lizards, the 



former when flying, the latter when resting : and, to a lesser degree, 



the spiders which spin their webs across paths and clearings to entraj) 



the unwary flier hastening along on rapid wing in pursuit of the 



brief pleasures of its short aerial life. Bee-eaters (Meropidce), and 



Kingcrows (^Dicrnridoi) are the chief bird enemies. They catch the 



butterflies on the wing accounting for a goodly number every day : 



swallow-tails and " whites " being the ordinary victims, even the large 



pjolyninestor not escaping occasional capture. The fast flying Nympha- 



lince are not easily caught, the weaker Satyi'ince live nearly altogether 



in the shade, amongst tall grasses and in bushes and forests and so 



escape death to a great degree, the " blues " are extremely rapid in 



their movements or are too small to offer much temptation as food to 



birds and are, therefore, less victimised than many others; the "skiji- 



pers " are also among the favoured in this respect. But what about 



the slow flying, weak-winged Danaince which should be the most easily 



caught of all ? They fly composedly from place to place, never in a 



hurry, courting the sunshine and open spaces as if they had nought 



to fear from aerial enemies. And this, in truth, is practically the 



case. They are all, without exception, unfit for food and the birds 



know it. They taste nasty and are difficult to kill being provided 



with disagreeably smelling glands and hairs which assuredly also 



taste bad and a body more like India-rubber than anything else in its 



