CARNIVOROUS BUTTERFLIES — CLARK 497 



Miss Morton said that Avhen these caterpillars molt they come out 

 bright and clean, but by the time they crawl their own length they are 

 again stuck over with avooI, and this is the case until pupation. 



The third larval stage. — After the second molt, which takes place 

 about two days after the first, the body becomes higher and broader 

 in the middle, and the hairs become more numerous. The feet and 

 legs are not retractile. The head is more covered by the first seg- 

 ment than it was before, but it is only slightly covered, and that only 

 along the forehead. 



The fourth and last larval stage. — About two days after the second 

 molt the third and last molt takes place. The body, as described 

 by Scudder, is smol^ pallid above with slender dorsal and latero- 

 dorsal smoky brown stripes, the former more or less interrupted, and 

 both more or less tinged with olivaceous, especially in front, where 

 the thoracic segments are more or less clouded between the stripes 

 with olivaceous; more or less marked with pallid or whitish at the 

 incisures and the posterior edge of the segments along the stigmatal 

 and infrastigmatal lines. The hairs are mingled blackish and pallid, 

 giving the whole a fuzzy gray appearance. Along the sides each 

 segment has three or four more or less obscured blackish dotlike 

 spots, especially an anterior laterostigmatal spot, and the fuscous 

 spot in which the minute pallid spiracle is placed. Edwards says 

 that the color of the dorsal area is pale gray, the outer edges white, 

 and the side is white with a pale brown macular stripe running 

 through it, and above this is an oblique brown bar on each segment, 

 except at the extremities. In the middle of the back there is a macu- 

 lar brown stripe, and on the seventh-eleventh segments four brown 

 rounded spots, tAvo in front and two behind. The subdorsal swell- 

 ings are red-orange, or Indian red, or pinkish. There is much 

 variation in individuals in all the markings, and Mr. Edwards sus- 

 pected that the species of aphis fed upon may cause variations, as 

 one larva raised by him upon plum aphids was at all stages whiter 

 than those on alder, and the darker markings pale. 



These caterpillars are indeed very variable. They are usually 

 grayish, somewhat tinged with greenish in front, ranging from very 

 light to fairly dark. The reddish markings especially vary from 

 deep dull brown to brick red or pink. Sometimes there is no 

 broAvnish or reddish color at all, all the markings being gray. Oc- 

 casionally the entire caterpillar is of a uniform pale pink. This 

 variety is A^ery rare on alder ; but my son, Austin B. J. Clark, found 

 five on a patch of woolly aphids {NeoprociphUus attenuatus) on a 

 stem of the carrion flower {Smilax herhacea)., all of which were of 

 an immaculate pink. The pupse and the adults from these were of 

 normal coloration. Frequently on alder the white is more or less 



