Chap. XII.] 



BUTTERFLIES. 



425 



waterfalls, living mainly in the shade of the moist 

 foliage, and returning to it in haste after the shortest 

 flights, as if their slender bodies were speedily dried up 

 and exhausted by exposure to the intense heat. 



Among the largest and most gaudy of the Ceylon 

 Lepidoptera is the great black and yellow butterfly 

 (Omithoptera darsius, Grray) ; the upper wings of 

 which measure six inches across, and are of deep velvet 

 black, the lower ornamented by large particles of satiny 

 yellow, through which the sunlight passes. Few insects 

 can compare with it in beauty, as it hovers over the 

 flowers of the heliotrope, which furnish the favourite 

 food of the perfect fly, although the caterpillar feeds on 

 the aristolochia and the betel leaf, and suspends its 

 chrysalis from its drooping tendrils. 



Next in size as to expanse of wing, though often 

 exceeding it in breadth, is the black and blue Papilio 

 Polymnestor, which darts rapidly through the air, 

 alighting on the ruddy flowers of the hibiscus, or the 

 dark green foliage of the citrus, on which it deposits 

 its eggs. The larvae of this species are green with 

 white bands, and have a hump on the fourth or fifth 

 segment. From this hump the caterpillar, on being 

 irritated, protrudes a singular horn of an orange colour, 

 bifurcate at the extremity, and covered with a pungent 

 mucilaginous secretion. This is evidently intended as 

 a weapon of defence against the attack of the ichneumon 

 flies, that deposit their eggs in its soft body, for when 

 the grub is pricked, either by the ovipositor of the 

 ichneumon, or by any other sharp instrument, the horn 

 is at once protruded, and struck upon the offending 

 object with unerring aim. 



Amongst the more common of the larger butterflies 



