98 SCARCE SWALLOW-TAIL BUTTERFLY. 
back, and having a row of black 6pots on each sid6 
of the abdomen. 
The caterpillar is widest at the head, and tapers 
considerably to the hinder extremity. It is smooth, 
of a bright green colour, with three longitudinal 
white lines, and indistinct oblique white streaks, 
spotted with red on each side of all the segments, 
except that next the head and tail. It feeds chiefly 
on the various species of the genus Prunus, seeming 
to be most partial to the sloe-thorn.* 
Numerous notices are on record of this species 
having occurred in Britain, but all of them have been 
found, on strict investigation, to be of so unsatisfac- 
tory a nature, as to leave it in some measure doubtful 
whether it is really indigenous. In some instances, 
the preceding insect appears to have been mistaken 
for it ; and in others, examples have been introduced 
into collections as British, without that fact having 
been fully ascertained. Mention is first made of it 
by Ray, who states that ho found it during his tour 
in Italy ; and also, if he recollected rightly (ni male 
memini, is the expression) in England. Berkenhout 
has admitted it into his Synopsis ; and it is figured 
by Donovan, Lewin, and others, among our native 
species. In a list of rare British Insects, published 
in 1827, there is an announcement of its having been 
discovered in the New Forest ; but subsequent in- 
* Mr Stephens, following Fabricius, says that its food con- 
sists of the different kinds of brassica ; hut this statement is 
at variance with recent and more accurate observation. 
