58 METAMORPHOSES OF 



XX. — MOLIPPA Sabina. 



Molippa Sabina, Walker, Catal. Lep. Het. Brit. Mus. vi., 

 p. 1345 (1855). 



Larva, a, Full-fed. San Paulo, March 9, 1878. 



The caterpillar feeds upon " Unha de vacca" a papilionaceous 

 tree with large white flowers. It is gregarious in its habits. 

 In the day time it is to be found in clusters of twentj' or 

 thirty individuals on the trunk of the tree on which it feeds. 

 At night they ascend the tree and feed, descending in the 

 morning to the same spot. They are beautiful caterpillars, 

 the body being ashen grey marked with black and crimson 

 dots. It is covered with tree-like tufts of venomous spines 

 of a whitish colour tipped with black. 



After emerging from a change of skin the caterpillar goes 

 through a series of extraordinary contortions, apparently 

 twisting itself into knots and then undoing them. The 

 object of this is no doubt to unfurl the spines, which are of 

 course quite soft and more or less crushed together as they 

 come out of the old skin. I have observed the same contor- 

 tions in many other spiny caterpillars. When full-fed the 

 colour changes to a dark yellowish brownish grey. 



Pupa, a, San Paulo, March, 1878. 



Pupation take place within a dark brown semi-transparent 

 cocoon spun between leaves, etc. The length of time the 

 insect remains in the pupa state varies greatly. Some 

 specimens that were full-fed in March, 1878, produced images 

 in April ; others did not appear till the middle of October. 



a, 5 Full-fed, March 6; Imago, April 16, 1878 

 = 41 days. 

 Imago. ■{ ^^ ^ pull-fed, March 17 ; Imago, Oct. 15, 1878 

 = 212 days. 



