FAMILY HABITS IN BUTTERFLY LARViE THE CHRYSOPHANIDS. O 



its sluggish habits and attitude under all conditions. He further 

 notes that the larvae of Chrysophanus hippothoe are easily dislodged 

 from their foodplant, except when they are fastened up for a 

 moult, when they cling to it rather firmly. This sluggish habit 

 appears to be closely allied to the cryptic habits exhibited by 

 Chrysophanid larvae. Of that of Chrysophanus dispar (rutilus) Sich 

 writes (in litt.) : " The pale green, fullfed, larva of Chrysophanus dispar 

 (rutilus) adheres closely to the leaf of Rumex Jiydrolapathwn, and, from 

 its peculiar shape, casting little shadow, is remarkably well hidden. 

 It is rather yellower than the dock-leaf , and might easily be passed over as 

 a spot of sunlight. Its dermal covering, however, harmonises well with 

 the leaf. Its skin is covered with little white cup-hairs, which, to the 

 unaided eye, look like little white dots, resembling somewhat the 

 white points on the dock leaf, especially numerous about the veins on 

 the underside." CJirysophanus dispar larva drops rapidly, like its 

 congeners, from its position of rest on a leaf, if disturbed, but does 

 so by means of a thread -attachment (Sich), not noticed in L. alciphron 

 (yordius) (supra). Frohawk, contrary to other observers, says (Ent., 

 xl., p. 146) that, when young, " the larvae of C. dispar crawl rapidly," 

 and that " they continually shift their quarters, never remaining to 

 feed in the same place long," but adds that the fullgrown larvae are 

 "sluggish in their movements, crawling with a slow gliding motion." 

 He further observes the fact that, whilst the summer-feeding larvae 

 remain green, the autumn-feeding larvae, when preparing for hyber- 

 nation, gradually change to a more or less lilac hue, mixed with 

 green stripes, which colour entirely harmonises with the surroundings 

 of the larva when hybernating, the dull lilac and greenish producing 

 a most protective combination of colour that renders the larva very 

 inconspicuous in the dead leaves. After hybernation, and before the 

 first spring moult, they gradually lose the lilac colouring and assume 

 the normal green. Sich notes that he specially observed two larvae 

 of C. dispar (rutilus) that moulted into the 3rd instar, August 10th, 

 1906. These, he noticed, had changed from green to greenish- brown 

 on the 13th, and, on the 14th, were brown with a tint of red on the 

 whole of the upper surface, the legs and the venter remaining green ; 

 this part being naturally always hidden, needs no cryptic coloration. 

 Chapman observes that further statistical data are wanted, but there 

 are some grounds for believing that the red colour in the larvae of 

 Rumicia phlaeas, that is so variable in amount and makes some of 

 them so brilliant, is more pronounced ' and constant in those larvae 

 that hybernate, young larvae that are not to hybernate rarely having 

 much of it, and it may be quite wanting in full-grown summer larvae. 

 In any case, the red colour harmonises with the red colour that is so 

 common in Rumex acetosa and R. acetosella, when under adverse condi- 

 tions, of drought, age, injury, etc. When young the larva of Heodes 

 virgaureae rests on the lower part of the stalk of a sorrel leaf, when 

 older, on the underside of these leaves, growing slowly in the first four 

 weeks of larval life, but much more rapidly in the last three weeks, 

 being of the same colour as the sorrel leaf, and excellently protected 

 when resting on the underside of the leaves. Grundel observes (Ent. 

 News, xv., p. 97) that the young larvae of Chrysophanus gorgon, a Cali- 

 fornian species, live on the lower part of the plants, hiding among 

 the old leaves and feeding but very little in the autumn on the 



