272 THE KNTOMOLOGISr. 



I now turn to caterpillars. I have often been surprised 

 that in the East Indies, where there is so great a variety of" 

 bulterHies, so few caterpillars should be met with. My 

 observations lead ine to think that this is to be ascribed to 

 the circumstance that probably a large portion of the Indian 

 larvae, as is the case with some in the temperate zones, avoid 

 the light and heat of the day in the ground, and only visit 

 the plants on which they feed at night; besides, as is also 

 the case with tropical as compared with temperate plants, 

 very few seem to be gregarious; at least I never found a 

 great number of larvae together, except those of Bomhijx 

 Waringi, Teysm., a quantity of whose larvae I once met with 

 on a young Ficus Benjaminea, Linn. 



Among the larvaj which I had an opportunity of observing 

 I noticed the important fact, long known in Europe, that 

 some species seem to desert the plants on which their 

 species originally fed for imported plants ; just as in the 

 Netherlands the larvae of Acherontia Atropos, Linn., now seems 

 to live by preference on the potato plant, which was introduced 

 from America, and cannot be excluded from it, so we find 

 the very common larva of the equally common butterfly, 

 Papilio Agamemnon, Linn., both in Batavia and South-west 

 Celebes, always feeding on the leaves of Anona muricata, 

 Linn., a plant introduced from the West Indies, I also met 

 with the larvae of Euploea Midamus, Linn., feeding both on 

 an indigenous plant and on ihe oleander, which was imported 

 from Europe as an ornauiental plant; and at Manghasar the 

 larvae of Cgllo Leda, Linn., were not uncommon on the South 

 American pampas-grass, which I grew in my garden for 

 horse- fodder. 



Among East Indian larvae 1 also observed the peculiar 

 variations and resemblances, perhaps partly explicable by 

 miu)icry, but always remarkable, which occur among laivae 

 themselves, so that some, apparently without any rule, which 

 produce allied butterflies, are very similar, while at other 

 times those of species which resemble each other very closely 

 (such as the European Acronycla iridens and A. psi), always 

 exhibit a great difference in their bnva3 ; and, again, other 

 species, which are very distantly related, are produced from 

 larvae with the closest mutual resemblance. The larvae of ihe 

 closely-allied Papilio MemnoH and P. Polytes, Linn., differ 



