GRAPTA II. 
laterals, on 8th to 11th segment inclusive, appears a ferruginous point. With very 
little change this type reaches maturity. Other larvae are almost wholly black to 
maturity, wanting the dorsal and lateral green spots and showing merely transverse 
striae on each segment. Others are black while young, but when one-third grown 
become greenish white with faint shades of black interspersed as if seen though a 
semi-transparent skin. And others again are like the last mentioned but have a 
reddish or vinous tint instead of black. I have not been able to discover that the 
variation of the larvae has any connection with the sex or with the shades of color 
of the butterfly. 
The length of the mature larva is 1.25 inch. When about to transform it 
selects a convenient place, on the under side of a projecting rock, or of a fence 
rail, or of a weather board of the house, or the midrib of a hop-leaf, and having 
spun a little button of pale red silk fixes the hooks of its anal legs therein and 
hangs suspended, head downwards, in the shape of a fish-hook, and immoveable, 
for the space of twenty to twenty-four hours, no change being perceptible except 
in the color of the skin which becomes partly transparent and loses its dark color, 
owing to its gradual parting from the chrysalis within. Suddenly, and to a looker 
on without any premonitory symptom, a rent takes place in the skin at the back 
of the head just wide enough to allow the passage of the chrysalis, the head of 
which at once emerges. By a rapid contraction and expansion of the folds of the 
abdomen the larva draws the skin upwards successively discovering the parts of 
the fully formed chrysalis, until at last, and in scarcely more than one minute of 
time, the entire skin is gathered about the anal feet. It now bends itself violently to 
disengage the end of the chrysalis, which is long, pointed and hard, furnished with 
several little hooks, meanwhile retaining its hold of the skin by the folds of its ab- 
domen, until after a severe effort convulsively reaching out and feeling in all direc- 
tions for the object of its search, it touches the button of silk and at once grasps it 
with its hooks and fixes them in it securely. Then by a twisting motion it man- 
ages to disengage the loose skin, which falls to the ground, and the chrysalis rests. 
The whole process is most interesting to witness and excites renewed wonder with 
every repetition, at the ingenuity of the means employed and the delicacy of the 
instinct displayed. How to strip off the skin and much more the legs by which 
the creature is suspended, without losing its hold, and at same time to securely 
fasten the chrysalis, is a problem that would seem impossible to solve, and yet this 
little insect accomplishes it unerringly, when to fail would be certain destruction. 
And not this species only, but the larvae of all butterflies which form suspended 
chrysalids, embracing the whole of the great family of Nymphalidae, that is, a large 
proportion of all existing species of butterflies, undergo a similar transformation. 
The chrysalis is now green in color, soft and indefensible, susceptible to the 
