BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



appearance of being bleached, the usual brown 

 colour being absent in such blotches, and a 

 kind of dingy white appearing in its place ; 



Variety of Female in Mr. Clark's collection. 



two of these curious aberrations are figured. 

 The female also occasionally appears with all 

 the coloration of the male. Mr. Dale first 

 called my attention to this peculiarity, and 

 forwarded me a specimen ; since which I have 

 captured several. 



Obs. The male is the Papilio Janira of 

 Linnaeus ; the female is that author's Papilio 

 Jurtina. 



LIFE HISTORY. The females deposit their 

 EGGS on various species of grasses, and, from 

 the willingness exhibited by the CATERPILLARS 

 in confinement to eat any grasses provided for 

 them, I conclude that little choice is displayed 

 in the selection of species : the period of ovi- 

 position extends over seven or eight weeks, 

 commencing about the third week in June, 

 and ending about the middle of August, 

 during the whole of which period I have 

 observed the females busily engaged in this 

 occupation. The young caterpillar emerges 

 in twelve days, and feeds sparingly, after the 

 manner of infant caterpillars, until the first 

 moult ; as soon as this is accomplished it 

 retires towards the surface of the ground, and 

 hybernates at the roots of the herbage. In 

 May it leappears, and may then be found by 

 examining the mowing grass near the surface 

 of the ground. It is usually full fed by the 

 beginning of June, and then rests in a tolerably 

 straight position, generally towards the base 

 of a blade of grass, but when disturbed falls 

 from its food-plant, and rolls itself in a tight, 



but not very compact, ring, the anal ex- 

 tremity protruding in rather a marked manner 

 over the head : in this attitude it will remain 

 for hours perfectly motionless. The head is 

 rather broader than the second segment, and 

 its position prone : the body is obese, some- 

 what spindle-shaped, tap,ering from the sixth 

 to the thirteenth segment, which terminates 

 in two parallel points above the anal aperture 

 and directed backwards ; the surface of the 

 skin is rough, almost like shagreen, the rough- 

 ness being caused by minute warts ; the seg- 

 mental divisions are not well marked, except 

 when the caterpillar is rolled up ; each seg- 

 ment is transversely divided into sections, 

 which are also obscurely indicated ; the sides 

 are slightly dilated ; the surface throughout 

 is pretty thickly covered with arched hairs 

 directed backwards. The colour of the head 

 and body is opaque apple-green, with a medio- 

 dorsal darker stripe, indicating the position of 

 the alimentary canal, and probably partially 

 due to the presence of food therein : the 

 lateral dilatation is surmounted with a narrow 

 pale stripe, almost white ; the anal points are 

 dirty white, tinged with brown ; the hairs are 

 white. Three of my specimens changed to 

 chrysalids on the 18th, 24th and 29th of May 

 respectively : the head of the CHRYSALIS is 

 obtusely eai-ed, the ears very distant and 

 short ; the thorax is dorsally keeled, the keel 

 being slender and entire ; the shoulders of 

 the wing-cases are produced into an obtuse 

 tooth : in two instances the skin of the cater- 

 pillar remained, enveloping the anal extremity, 

 so that the chrysalis could not be suspended ; 

 in the third it hung for a time from a blade 

 of grass, the skin still enveloping the anal 

 extremity, but attached by its anal hooks to 

 silken threads on the grass. The colour of the 

 chrysalis is pale apple-green, freckled with 

 whitish or yellowish green, and adorned with 

 purple-black markings, of which the more 

 conspicuous are first, two dorsal series, com- 

 mencing behind the head, passing on each 

 side of the thoracic keel, broken into spots on 

 the fourth, seventh, eighth and ninth seg- 

 ments, and continuous on the remainder; 

 secondly, a series passing over the ears, and 



