1 yg I December, 
That butterflies may sometimes be disturbed before their wings are dry I 
know, for last July a Vanessa cardui tempted me across a large field before it was 
secured, by its curiously heavy and short flights, and when captured, its wings were 
80 limp, that it seemed impossible it could have used them for flying. —Charles G. 
Barrett, Norwich, Novenih&r 6th, 1868. i 
Descrvption of the larva of Lyccena Artaxerxes. — On the 8th May, 1868, Mr, 
Doubleday kindly presented me with three larvse of Artaxerxes, about half-grown, 
which had been sent to him by Mr. Wilson, of Edinburgh, who found them od 
HeUanthemum vulgare. 
They fed well on this plant, and were always on the under-sides of the leaveS; 
to which they assimilated so well as to be difficult of detection. 
The larva is of the usual Lyccena shape, somewhat onisciform, short and thick, 
being arched on the back, sloping on the sides, the spiracular region swollen, and 
projecting laterally much beyond the ventral legs ; the segments appear deeplj 
divided, especially on the back, down which are two rows of rather peaked cone- 
like eminences, with a dorsal hollow between them, the second segment simplj 
rounded above, and rather longer than the other, and tapering a little near th< 
head, which is very small and retractible ; the anal segment tapers very little 
is rounded behind, and hollowed above on the sides ; the twelfth segment has i 
small and prominent wart on each side. 
The half-grown larva is from three to four liaes in length, pale green in colour 
and clothed with very fine and short whitish bristles. The dorsal line, beginning 
on the fourth and ending on the twelfth segment, is of a faint brown, though widei 
and more strongly marked just at the beginning of each segment, and widest at its 
termination on the penultimate. 
On the sides of the fifth to the tenth segments are double oblique lines slanting 
backwards and downwards, of paler green in front and darker green behind, thar 
that of the ground colour. At this stage of growth the lateral projecting ridge o 
swellings broadly pink, with scarcely an indication of a central paler stripe ; th« 
belly and ventral legs pale yellowish-green ; the anterior legs flesh colour. Thi 
head black, base of the papillae flesh colour, and a streak of the same above th( 
mouth. 
On approaching full-growth its length is about half-an-inch ; the oblique stripei 
gradually disappear, and its green coloui- becomes ratlier darker ; a piukish-whitt 
stripe runs along the lateral prominences, broadly bordered above by a stripe ol 
rose-pink, and beneath by a broader stripe of still darker pink ; the spiracles are 
flesh-colour, situated in the upper pink stripe, very minute and inconspicuous. 
The ventral legs green, and the anterior legs pinkish spotted with brown. 
Two changed to the pupa-state on May 21st, and the third a week later, all ii 
nearly perpendicular positions, amongst, and slightly attached to, the stems of the 
HeUanthemum by a few silk threads near the ground. 
The pupa is about four lines in length, smooth, and without polish, rathei 
thick in proportion, the head rounded and prominent, the thorax rounded above 
the abdomen plump and curved a little backwards, its extremity being hidden in 
the skdvelled larva-skin which adhei-es to it. The colour of the head, thorax, and 
wing-cases blue-green, a black curved streak obliquely placed on each side of the 
