PAPILIO MAOHAON. 6 



last moult the larva feeds on for ten or twelve days, 

 consuming a great quantity of food, and making very 

 rapid growth. I may here note that its usual attitude 

 in repose is from the very first much like that of a 

 Sphinx with the neck arched and the head bent down. 



The earliest age at which I noticed the curious horns 

 of the second segment was when I touched the larva 

 just after its third moult ; they were then much longer 

 and thinner than they became after the fourth moult, but 

 there accompanied their protrusion a drop or two of 

 clear greenish liquid, and a most penetrating odour, 

 which reminded me of an over-kept decaying pine- 

 apple. After the fourth moult the horns were of a 

 snorter and stouter character, but I observed that when 

 I was holding a larva between my finger and thumb it 

 had the power to lengthen one horn at the expense of 

 the other (which became shorter) so as to manage to 

 touch my finger with it ; the horns are extremely soft 

 aud flexible. 



When full grown the larva ceases feeding and 

 rests for a while, and then commences its prepara- 

 tions for pupation by selecting a stem and spinning 

 on it from side to side a number of threads to ensure 

 a good foot-hold ; next, lying along these threads head 

 downwards, it spins at the bottom of them a broad 

 cone of whitish silk, having a sharpish apex; then, 

 turning round, it creeps up the stem a little and with 

 the anal prolegs feels about till they find this cone, 

 when they are placed close together on the stem but 

 touching the base of the cone, and a slight pushing 

 motion is visible by which their circlet of hooks is 

 fixed in the silk spun on the stem. Its tail end being 

 thus fixed the larva stretches out its head and front 

 segments, lifting up at the same time the first and 

 second pairs of ventral feet, and bends itself back- 

 wards in a wide sweep from one side of the stem to 

 the other, as though to be assured there is free room 

 for its movements. It next — while in this semi- 

 detached attitude, and with its thoracic legs rigidly 



