P^SYCHE. 



COLOR-VARIATION IN LARVAE OF PAPILIO POLYXENES, 

 AND OTHER NOTES. 



BY CAROLINE G. SOULE, BROOKLINE, MASS. 



In the summer of 1S99 these butter- 

 flies were remarkably abundant in Bran- 

 tlon, V^t., and on many occasions I fol- 

 lowed them from plant to plant collect- 

 ing the eggs as fast as thev were hiitl. 

 keeping those of each butterfly by them- 

 selves. 



Of more than 400 eggs the greater 

 number were laid on carawa}' growing 

 by the road, a few were on wild parsnip, 

 and more than one third weie on a 

 patch of parsley in the garden, the 

 whole patch not larger than a man's 

 pocket handkerchief. 



As the larvae grew they showed 

 great variety in color and marks. In 

 the stage following the third moult 

 some were a little blacker than others. 



After the fourth moult there was al- 

 most infinite variety, from those which 

 were almost all grass-green with only 

 hair-lines of black and very tiny yellow 

 dots, to those which were almost whol- 

 ly black with hair-lines of green, and 

 yellow dots either v^ery large or almost 

 imperceptible. 



But the greatest difference was shown 

 by thirteen larvae which were abso- 

 lutely without green at any stage of 

 larval life, and were black and white. 



with \ellow dots, in the last stage. 

 The black \aried much in these also, 

 one or two specimens having only hair- 

 lines of white. 



Food made no ditlerence in the color- 

 ing, for all the larvae were fed chiefly 

 on caraway, and all fared alike. 



The black larvae came from eggs 

 laid by butterflies whose other eggs 

 gave normal larvae, and they passed 

 through the four moults in eveiy case. 

 I had the larvae in tin boxes on my 

 table, and examined them at least twice 

 daily, and each tin contained so few 

 larvae that I was able to be perfectly- 

 sure of the moulting of each one. 



The chrysalids of these black larvae 

 were of the brown type, with no l.ilack 

 and no green about them, but severed 

 shades of brown. They were like 

 twenty or thirty others formed by nor- 

 mal larvae. 



Several of the normal larvae made 

 bright green chrysalids with rows of 

 yellow down the back. 



Although the first chrj-salids were 

 formed on August 6th, and others were 

 formed dail\' for many days, only three 

 gave the butterfly, and all of these were 

 of the green form, and these three never 



