168 LIEUT.-COL. J. M. FAWCETT ON THE 



Charaxes varanes (Cramer). (Plate VI. figs. 16, larva; 16 a, pupa.) 

 Papilio varanes Cramer, Pap. Exot. ii. t. clx. if. D,E (1779). 



Mr. J. F. Quekett writes to me as follows : — 



" The eggs of C. varanes are laid on both sides of the leaves of the food-plant ; they 

 are yellow when first laid, and subsequently become particoloured (yellow and brown) ; 

 they are hatched in five days from date of laying. 



" The larvae in 1st and 2nd skins are green, with black heads or marks. In 3rd 

 moult they are green, with purple-brown mask and white dorsal spots, and bifid tail on 

 anal somite yellow. 



" The full-grown larva is bluish green with dark green mask, the underside of which 

 is blue ; abdomen and claspers bluish white ; body thickly irrorated with minute white 

 spots ; on 6th, 8th, and 10th somites are crescentic masks, white, with the green of 

 the body showing through. Of these full-fed larva?, bred by Mr. Leigh, and brought 

 down to me yesterday, two had three white dorsal marks, and one only two. My larva, 

 in spirit, which is a fellow one to yours, has lost all trace of the white dorsal marks." 



In this connection, I may mention that my full-grown larva, in spirit, has no trace 

 whatever of dorsal marks, but agrees otherwise with the above description 1 . 



Family PAPIL10NID.E. 



Subfamily P i e r i n m (Bates). 



Pieris gidica Godart. (Plate VI. figs. 17, 18, larva ; 19, 20, pupa.) 

 Pieris gidica Godt. Enc. Metli. ix. p. 131 (1819). 



Larva. Head and body pale bluish green, surface of body somewhat rough. Sub- 

 dorsal paired white spots on each somite, those on the 1st somite being much larger 

 than those on the others ; a bifid tail at the anal extremity. 



Feeds on the following four plants, viz. : — Capparis citrifolia (Lam.), Capparis 

 guenezii (Sond.), Capparis zeyheri (Turcz.), and Capparis corymbifera (E. Mey.). 



Pupa. Pale yellowish green, with a fine reddish-brown dorsal line on the thoracic 

 somites ending in a fine point on the head, and two lateral spines of the same colour 

 above the inner angle of the wing-covers ; a few blackish spots are sprinkled over the 

 back. 



These descriptions are taken from coloured drawings by Mr. W. Haygarth. 



The imago is a common insect in the Durban district during the summer months, 

 being replaced during the winter, or dry season, by the form abyssinica (Lucas). 



1 [I figured (S.-Af'r. Butt. i. pi. i. fig. 6, 18S7) an apparently earlier stage of the larva, from a drawing by 

 Mr. J. P. Mansol Weale of a Cape Colony example, with three crescentic dorsal marks. In a description and 

 drawing of a Natal specimen sent mo by Mr. C. N. Barker in 1896 the dorsal marks are represented as 

 white, and are only two in number, on the 6th and 8th segments respectively. — 11. T.] 



