﻿HESPERIIDAE SKIPPERS 



365 



man considers that the pupa in several points of structure re- 

 sembles that of the small moths. Not only does the larva draw 

 together leaves or stalks to make a shelter for the pupa, hut it 

 frequently also forms a rudimentary cocoon. These arrangements 

 are, however, very variable, and the accounts that have been 

 given indicate that even the same species may exhibit some 

 amount of variation in its pupation. Scudder considers that, in 

 the North American Skippers, the eremaster is attached to a single 

 Y-like thread.- In other cases there is a silk pad on the leaf for 

 the eremaster to hook on. An interesting account given by Mr. 

 Dudgeon of the pupation of a common Indian Skipper, Badamia 

 exclamationis, shows that this Insect exercises considerable in- 



Fio. 185. — Pupation of 

 /'mi/it in ia exclamationis. 

 (After Dudgeon. J. 

 Bombay Soc. x. 1895. 

 p. 144). A, One side 

 of the leaf-cradle, the 

 other (nearest to the 

 observer) being broken 

 away ; B, transverse sec- 

 tion of entire cradle, a, 

 The pupa ; b, fastenings 

 of perpendicular threads 

 round pupa ; c, cross 

 thread retaining the leaf 

 in cradle form ; </, mar- 

 gins of the leaf ; e, mid- 

 rib of leaf. 



genuity in the structure of the puparium, and also that the 

 arrangements it adopts facilitate one of the acts of pupation most 

 difficult for such pupae as suspend themselves, viz. the hooking the 

 cremasters on to the pad above them. Badamia uses a rolled-up 

 leaf (Fig. 185) ; the edges of the leaf are fastened together by 

 silk at d ; from this spot there descends a thread which, when 

 it reaches the pupa, a, forks so as to form an inverted Y, and is 

 fastened to the leaf on either side ; the two sides of the leaf are kept 

 together by a cross thread, cc. Mr. Dudgeon was fortunate enough 

 to observe the act of pupation, and saw that " although the anal 

 prolegs of the larva were attached to a tuft or pad of silk in the 

 usual way, and remained so until nearly the whole skin had been 

 shuffled off, yet when the last segment had to be taken out, the 

 pupa drew it entirely away from- the skin and lifted it over the 



