Mr. A. S. Olliff 07i Australian Lepidoptera. 357 



XLVII. — SJwrt Life-histories of nine Australian Lepidoptera. 

 By A. Sidney Olliff, Assistant Zoologist, Australian 

 Museum, Sydney. 



[Plate XX .] 



The following pages contain notes and descriptions of larvse 

 observed in the immediate neighbourhood of Sydney, drawn 

 up with the view of supplying some little information about 

 the early stages of such species as I have succeeded in rearing 

 during the past year. As few collectors in Australia have 

 turned their attention to the earlier stages of the Lepidoptera, 

 any resident entomologist with time and inclination for the 

 work would have an almost untrodden field in this direction. 

 Of the ten larvae which I have reared, as far as I am aware 

 only one, namely Brunia replana, has previously been ob- 

 served, although my larva-collecting scarcely extended 

 beyond the limits of a single garden at Double Bay, one of 

 the innumerable indentations of Port Jackson. 



Papilionidae. 



Papilio sa?'pedon, Linn., var. choredon, Feld. 

 (PI. XX. fig. L) 



The larva when very young is of a velvety black colour, 

 with numerous spines, somewhat resembling those of many 

 Nymphalidffi. On the shoulders two much larger spines 

 fringed with hairs, and two at the anal extremity pure white. 

 As the larvse increase in size they lose the whole of the 

 spines with the exception of two on each side of the first 

 three segments * and the two at the tail, the colour of the 

 insect now being of a dull sajJ-green above, merging into a 

 bluish ashy hue on the sides ; on the third segment, between 

 and connecting the two spines, is a bright yellow band. 

 These colours, although decreasing in intensity and becoming 

 finely speckled with white, are continued until the insect is 

 full-grown. The spines, however, become smaller and the 

 lateral band of yellowish white in the region of the stigmata 

 much more distinct. The adult larva is robust anteriorly, 

 gradually tapering to the tail, in length about If inch, and 

 possesses retractile tentacula. 



* lu this aud the following descriptious the head is considered sepa- 

 rately and the segmjuts are couuted aiitero-posteriorlj from one to twelve. 



