36 



rest, shows a peculiar system of colouring, varying between a darker and a 

 lighter shade, which evidently points back to quite a different course of colour- 

 evolution to that at work on the upper-side. The same system of colouring 

 also, however, appears on the under-side in the case of other Rhopalocera 

 and must presumably be ascribed to the secondary inworking of external 

 influences referred to on page V of the Introduction. The under-side of a specimen 

 from Flores is very pale ; so it is also the case in some other forms of Iphias. 

 The caterpillar lives on the same kind of Capparis, on which also that of 

 P. Java L. Sparrm is found, and perhaps also on randu (Eriodendron 

 Anfractuosum Dc.) ; De Niceville mentions different kinds of Capparis and 

 also Crataeva religiosa Forst. It is pale green or greyish blue, shagreen-like, 

 which proves, when magnified, to be caused by sharp little spines entirely 

 covering the back and the sides ; for the rest it is spotted with black dots. 

 The under-side is yellow. On the edge between under-side and sides there is 

 a white line, composed of a number of sharp eminences that form the notched 

 edge of the back. The white of this line is yellowish or reddish, and on it 

 two small bumps protrude on each side, a blue one on the second thoracic 

 segment, and a red one on the third. A caterpillar which was said to be 

 found on randu (Eriodendron Anfractuosum Dc.) was a little bigger and o 

 a brighter colour; the white line on the side was mixed with orange, and the 

 bumps were for the greater part dark violet, on the top part a httle more red 

 and still above this, white; those bumps were moreover shiny. The second 

 and the third pair of fore-legs proceed from thick folds in the skin, by the 

 circumference of which that part of the caterpillar gets much broader and the 

 front part gets a triangular shape, which, seen from above, imitates the head 

 of a snake, in which the two red and blue protruding bumps on the sides of 

 the thoraix remind us of eyes. (PI. Ill fig. 2 b, c). This minicry is intensified 

 by the habit of the caterpillar of clinging to a small branch with the middle- 

 and the hind part of the body only and stretching forth the forepart, just as a 

 snake lifts this part of its body. Once I saw the effect of this on a native 

 boy, who was looking for caterpillars for me. When he was about to take 

 hold of the branch to show me the caterpillar, which he thought he had seen 

 on it, he suddenly drew back his hand when the caterpillar took the above- 

 mentioned position, now thinking it was a snake. This was a strong example 

 of mimicry ; to him, however, who does not judge about it under the suggestion 

 of ideas of scientific fashion, but with the calmness of the really scientific 

 naturalist, this is no proof that this likeness is of a great advantage to the 

 animal and has developed itself in consequence. In the first place it is not at 

 all certain that the impression made by it on men, is the same as on the 



