508 L. de Niceville & Dr. L. Martin — Butterflies of Snmatra. [No. 3, 



year in the plains of Sumatra, but does not occur probably much higher 

 than Namoe Oekor. It flies quite close to the sea, as Dr. Hagen took it 

 plentifully in his garden near Laboean. There are two forms of female ; 

 I, with somewhat light, whitish forewing and very black hindwing, 

 which is the rarer ; II, with entirely black forewing, but with only small 

 black spots on the hindwing, which is the commoner. Every gradation 

 between these two extreme forms exists in Sumatra as elsewhere. 

 Rothschild records the typical form from S.-E. Sumatra; also (& 8 ), ab„ 

 pinto, Felder, from S.-W. Sumatra; and (cZ), T. helena cerbevus, Felder, 

 from Sumatra. 



570. Troides (Pompeoptera) amphrtsus, Cramer. 



Grose Smith. Hagen as amphrysus, var. rubricollis [sic] ; and 

 amphrysus, var. ruficollls. This species was originally described from a 

 male from Batavia in Java. T. ruficollis, Butler, was described from 

 Malacca in the Malay Peninsula. I can find no constant character by 

 which to separate these two species, and Mr. Butler in his original de: - 

 cription of the latter does not say how they are supposed to differ. Heer 

 P. C. T. Snellen says also that tlie two species are identical. It occurs 

 in Sumatra throughout the year in the plains and on the outer ranges 

 of the hills, but not higher than Bekantschan, and is commoner than 

 T. Helena, Linnaeus. Dr. Martin has twice bred it, the larva feeding on 

 a creeper with large trilobate leaves. The egg is spherical and yellow, 

 and in three or four days the caterpillars emerge. When full grown 

 the larva is of a coffee-brown colour, and has on each segment four, 

 five, or seven fleshy processes, those on the first four segments (omitting 

 the head) are apically thickened and rounded and are bent backwards, 

 on the other segments they are directed forwards. The larva? devour 

 not only the leaves, but also the bark and soft shoots of their food- 

 plant if there are no more leaves to eat, and make a very audible noise 

 while eating, just as the larva? of large Sutumias do. They are very 

 delicate, and especially so when they have fixed themselves for their 

 transformation to the pupa state, when on no account should they be 

 touched. The pupa is yellow, is dorsal ly notched, and is suspended by a 

 black median silken girth. If the pupa is touched, disturbed in any 

 way, or even blown upon, it makes quite a loud noise by moving the 

 abdominal segments one over the other, which noise is so loud that it 

 is probably sufficient to scare away some of its enemies. After from 20 

 to 29 days the imago emerges, which is the longest pupal rest known to 

 us for purely tropical butterflies — at least as regards all such species as 

 we have bred. Even the large Papilios such as P. memnon, Linnaeus, 

 do not remain more than 15 or 16 days in the pupal stage. Rothschild 



