( xxiv ) 



within wide limits, entirely black and bright yellowish or reddish brown 

 caterpillars being rare, whilst all possible shades between these extreme 

 colours are commonly found. Nevertheless the colour of the caterpillar has 

 nothing to do with that of the pupa, and from both kinds of pupae similarly 

 coloured butterflies are developed, both males and females. The butterfly 

 lays from four to six eggs close together ; the young larvae remain in 

 company till the second moult ; they feed on the same leaf, and repose close 

 together, like the gregarious caterpillars of Papilio Evander, Godt., which 

 live in this manner till they pupate. Such a society of young larvae, which 

 Dr. Muller had observed from the egg in his garden, was transferred to a 

 large glass vessel just before the larvae distributed themselves over different 

 leaves. When about to pupate they were placed in a case, of which the two 

 larger sides were of white gauze, and the smaller sides and the top and 

 bottom of grey paper. The larvae attached themselves to a thin leafless 

 stem of Aristolochia. Out of five caterpillars two changed into brown and 

 three into green pupae ; a brown and green pupa were on the same twig, 

 less than their own length from one another. The caterpillars emerged 

 from the egg at the same time, and shed their larval skin simultaneously, 

 whilst they were exposed to the same external conditions during their 

 whole life, being exposed to the same action of light, and having at the 

 time of pupation neither brown nor green in their environment. Dr. Muller 

 concludes from this experiment that in the case of this species the colour of 

 the pupa certaiuly does not depend upon the colour of its surroundings. 



3. Hoiv the Caterpillar of Eunomia Eagrus, Cram., emjiloys its hairs.* — 

 Many lepidopterous larvae spin the hairs with which they are often so richly 





adorned into the cocoon in which they pupate, thereby not only giving to 

 the latter great thickness and solidity with a minimum expenditure of silk, 

 but sometimes also the property of frightening away many foes by exciting 

 on contact an almost unsufferable stinging and irritation. Eunomia Eagrus, 

 a clear-winged Glaucopid with a red hairy body, employs the hairs of the 

 caterpillars in a quite different and peculiar manner as a protection during 



' Kosmos,' vi. Jahrg. (Bd. XII.), p. 449. 



