riERIN.Tv 189 



Pupa. — Pattern and colouring very like tliat of larva, but the 

 green apparently more uniform and (except on wing-covers) inclining 

 to glaucous; yellow lateral stripe paler. Acute cephalic projection 

 tipped with reddish-brown. Attached to various bushes, grass, &c. 



These descriptions of larva and pupa are made from a coloured 

 drawing sent to me by Mrs. Barber in 1882. That of the pupa must 

 be qualified by the following note, made by Mrs. Barber during tlie 

 great abundance of the insect near Ivimberley in 1881, viz., "The 

 larv?e suspending themselves to various plants resulted in pupae won- 

 derfully adapted in colour to the particular plants occupied. Those 

 upon dry grass were straw-coloured ; one in a bunch of grass only 

 half dry and half green was green on the under side and straw- 

 coloured on the upper side. A number of caterpillars that I put 

 into a tin-box suspended themselves on its sides and became pupa3 

 of a leaden colour, I think, however, that when at liberty the larv?e 

 l>referred to pupate on the bluish-green upright stems of a small 

 species of Cijphoncma, common among the grass, for the bluish-green 

 pupre were crowded together upon it in great numbers. The chrysalis 

 state seldom lasted more than ten days." As regards the larva, Mrs. 

 Barber further notes : " I observed them literally in thousands on the 

 Cassia plants ; they cleared off every leaf, and then devoured the 

 young shoots, and even the bark of the stems. I noticed no variation 

 whatever in these caterpillars." 



This butterfly is very closely allied to C. Gnoma, Pab., from India 

 and China ; but the latter has in both sexes a rather wider, darker 

 (and in $ continuous) brown hind-marginal edging in the fore-wings, 

 and the under-side tint yellower than in the $ Flordla, but not nearly 

 so deep as in the Bhadia form of ^. The $ Gnoma, too, appears never 

 to show more sulphur-yellow on the upper side than a rather narrow 

 suffusion along the hind-margin of both fore and hind wings. From 

 Captain De la Chaumette's description (quoted by Mr. Butler, Zr^?. 

 Exot., p. 43), and the figures given in Moore's Lcp. Ceylon., pi. 48, 2a), 

 the earlier stages of Gnoma seem scarcely, if at all, to differ from those 

 of Flordla. 



It is in the late summer and in autumn, from about the middle of February 

 to the middle of ^Nlay, that Florella is most prevalent in South Africa ; but 

 Mr. Feltham notes the occurrence of a few on the wing at Ivimberley as early 

 as 2d October, and I met with two flying at D'Urban as late as 23d June. 

 During the time of the extreme abundance of the insect at Kimberley in 

 1881, Mrs. Barber noted that the yellow form of $ was at first very scarce, 

 but later on became very numerous.^ During my visit to Natal in the summer 

 of 1867, the butterfly was by no means common. I took a good many ^ s, 



^ Mr. H. L. L. Feltham informs me that in the beginning of the season at Kimberley 

 white 9 B only are to be seen, and also notes the interesting circumstance that, as far as he 

 has been able to observe, the <5 s are then all less boldly marked on the under side than 

 those 6 s which fly later in the season, when the yellow ? s prevail. 



