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GENUS I. BUTTERFLIES. 



SEC. VI. SP. XLI. SCARCE SWALLOW-TAIL. 



PL 35- 



Podalirius. Linnaus. 



This elegant fpecies of butterfly is faid to have been caught in England, and 

 therefore I thought it not improper to give a figure of it, from a fine fpecimen 

 taken by Dr. Smith in the French king's gardens near Paris, and the natural 

 hiftory, with the figures of the caterpillar and chryfalis, from Roefel. ' The 

 caterpillar is pretty rare, and is moftly found on the borecole, to the under fide 

 of the leaves of which the female butterfly fixes her eggs, not together, but 

 fcattered here and there. The caterpillar when young appears of a pale orange 

 colour, but as it grows, and after the ufual fhedding of the fkins, it becomes of 

 a brighter yellow. When the time of its undergoing its metamorphofis ap- 

 proaches, it eats nothing for a day or two, and empties its body of all extraneous 

 matter, as indeed do all fuch caterpillars and other infects as ihed their fkins, 

 and change their forms. Having fought out a place of fecurity, which from 

 its flow and cautious pace is no eafy talk, it makes itfelf faft, fpins a web round 

 its body, and at length the external fkin of the caterpillar burfts ; and this it 

 rumples up, by moving from fide to fide, till it falls off, and the creature ap- 

 pears to view a chryfalis. The whole of this procefs commonly takes up a 

 couple of minutes. The butterfly in warm weather is produced from the chry- 

 falis in a fortnight's time : but if the caterpillar change late in the year, the but- 

 terfly will not appear till the next year. The fly appears beautiful on the wing, 

 and does not rife very high.' 



This butterfly is feen with expanded wings at fig. 3, the under parts at fig. 4, 

 the caterpillar at fig. 1, and the chryfalis at fig. 2. 



