( 456 ) 



XTV. Notes on the Life History of Papilio demolion, Cram. 

 By Margaret E. Fountaine, F.E.S. 



[Read June 3rd, 1914.] 



Plate LXVI. 



I HAVE, I suppose, at different times, bred some twenty to 

 thirty species of tropical Papilios, mostly from ova, in various 

 parts of the globe, but never have I seen anything the least 

 like the peculiar method of ovipositing adopted by Papilio 

 demolion, Cram, 



We were collecting at Soekaboemi, in Java, on Feb. 6 

 in this year (1914), when I observed a $ of this species 

 hovering over a broad-leaved jungle shrub (quite unknown 

 to me), with the evident intention of ovipositing, and though 

 P. demolion was common at Soekaboemi, and I had captured 

 several specimens, not one was ever perfect, so I was glad 

 to see a possible opportunity of breeding it. She took 

 some time to make up her mind, as Papilios, and indeed 

 all $ butterflies do, when an anxious entomologist is 

 standing motionless by, watching her movements, on the 

 tiptoe of expectation ; but she settled at last, right in the 

 centre of one of the large leaves, and then, strange to say, 

 remained also apparently quite motionless, with wings 

 outspread lying flat upon the leaf, more as though resting 

 than with the desire to lay an egg, though the position of 

 her abdomen suggested that such was her intention. This 

 in itself struck me at once as most peculiar, as all the other 

 Papihos I have ever seen oviposting (including P. erithonius 

 and P. polytes, which one would suppose to be closely allied 

 species to demolion) fly from leaf to leaf, laying each ovum 

 separately, fluttering all the time in the same way that the 

 members of this genus have the habit of doing when sucking 

 honey from a flower. 



She remained in this position for at least two whole 

 minutes, apparently motionless, and I remained the same, 

 watching, till at last she got up and flew away, when to my 

 astonishment I found, not one egg, but ten, rising in a 

 vertical column from the centre of the leaf, placed one above 

 the other, as shown in the Plate (see Plate LXVI, fig. 1). 



TBANS. ENT. SOC. LONP, 191 4. — PARTS III, IV. (FEB.) 



