98 SCARCE SWALLOW-TAIL BUTTERFLY. 



back, and having a row of black spots on each side 

 of the abdomen. 



The caterpillar is widest at the head, and tapers 

 considerably to the hinder extremity. It is smooth, 

 of a bright green colour, with three longitudinal 

 white lines, and indistinct oblique white streaks, 

 spotted with red on each side of all the segments, 

 except that next the head and tail. It feeds chiefly 

 on the various species of the genus Prunus, seeming 

 to be most partial to the sloe-thorn.* 



Numerous notices are on record of this species 

 having occurred in Britain, but all of them have been 

 found, on strict investigation, to be of so unsatisfac- 

 tory a nature, as to leave it in some measure doubtful 

 whether it is really indigenous. In some instances, 

 the preceding insect appears to have been mistaken 

 for it ; and in others, examples have been introduced 

 into collections as British, without that fact having 

 been fully ascertained. Mention is first made of it 

 by Ray, who states that he found it during his tour 

 in Italy ; and also, if he recollected rightly (ni male 

 memini, is the expression) in England. Berkenhout 

 has admitted it into his Synopsis ; and it is figured 

 by Donovan, Lewin, and others, among our native 

 species. In a list of rare British Insects, published 

 in 1827, there is an announcement of its having been 

 discovered in the New Forest ; but subsequent in- 



* Mr Stephens, following Fabricius, says that its food con- 

 sists of the different kinds of brassica; but this statement is 

 at variance with recent and more accurate observation. 



