116 



The chrysalis is suspended by the tail among the leaves of its food-plant. 

 It is of a bright translucent emerald green, with minute tubercles of the 

 brightest golden hue. It is very short and dumpy, and abruptly truncate at 

 either end. 



Both the caterpillar and the perfect insect emit a faint and peculiar odour, 

 which becomes strong and disagreeable when several caterpillars are shut up 

 in a close box. Like all the Danaidse, the insect in all its stages appears to 

 be distasteful to every living creature, and is very tenacious of life, being 

 known to exist in the butterfly state for fifteen months. In the United States, 

 however, the caterpillar is subject to the- attack of a dipterous parasite, Max- 

 icera arckippivora, Riley. 



The original home of Banais plezippus, as Mr. J. J. Walker, R.N., in- 

 forms us in the "Entomologists' Monthly Magazine/'' for March, 1836, is 

 the American Continent, where it enjoys a very wide range, extending from 

 Moose Fort, in Canada (lat. 50 20 N.), where snow lies on the ground for 

 eight months of the year, to the Amazon region and Bolivia, or (if we regard 

 Erippus, Cram., as a geographical variety merely), to the estuary of the Rio 

 de la Plata. Nearly everywhere throughout this vast region it appears to be 

 abundant, and in Missouri the air is sometimes filled with the butterflies to a 

 height of 300 or 400 feet. These vast swarms usually appear in the autumn, 

 and some of them migrate southwards on the approach of winter. 



Of late years this range, great as it is, has extended in a wonderfully steady 

 and rapid manner across the whole breadth of the Pacific Ocean, and far into 

 the Malay Archipelago. It is most abundant and firmly established in the 

 Sandwich Islands, where it was unobserved by the early voyagers. In the 

 Marquesas Islands, the first specimens appear to have been observed about 

 the year 1860. It is found throughout the Samoan, Friendly, and Fiji 

 Islands, being specially abundant in the latter group. It appears also to have 

 reached the North Island of New Zealand, as well as Norfolk Island. In 

 New Caledonia, where it has been long established, it became very abundant 

 some years ago, but is now comparatively scarce, owing perhaps to the de- 

 struction of nearly all the food-plant by the caterpillars. We first hear of its 

 occurrence in Australia in 1870, when Mr. Miskin ("Entomologists' Monthly 

 Magazine ") recorded its appearance in Queensland in numbers. It also now 

 appears to be firmly established and common in the New Hebrides, Soloman 

 Islands, and New Guinea ; and has also been recorded from Celebes and Java. 

 Starting from the eastern coast of America, we find Danias plexippus through- 

 out the West Indies, in company with some curious local forms of the genus ; 

 and it lias long been established in the Bermud is, 650 miles from the coast 

 of the United States. 



