5L 
that the amount of light to which the larva was exposed whilst 
spinning influenced the colour of the cocoon. One writer records” that 
cocoons spun on leaves changed from white to yellow in about a week, 
whilst those spun on the woodwork of the breeding-cage remained 
white. Another records' 1 four cocoons spun in a glass-bottomed pill¬ 
box, one pure white, two dirty white, and one almost entirely yellow, 
whilst several found that white cocoons turned yellow when wetted 
with water, and that this was not necessarily dependent on the age of 
the cocoon. The matter needs investigation. 
The pupa is at first entirely green, but the dorsal area soon becomes 
intensely black, and the rest a pale greenish-yellow, or rarely white. 
The black colour varies considerably in extent, and is sometimes entirely 
absent. That portion of the pupa containing the hind legs and pro¬ 
boscis projects beyond the wing cases, and when the moth is fully 
formed within, these organs can be seen distinctly not nearly filling the 
sheath. The pupal shell is very thin and transparent, except the black 
part, and when the moth is ready to emerge the colours and patterns on the 
wings show clearly through the pupal envelope. The pupal state lasts 
about three weeks. 
In confinement emergence appears to take place about 10 a.m. or 
10 p.m., the latter time being the more usual; but the fact that the 
moth flies at dusk suggests that in a state of nature an earlier emergence 
at about 4 or 5 p.m. would be more probable. 
When the moth emerges the wings are, of course, small and limp, 
but in about ten minutes they reach full expansion, and are then 
pressed together and kept hanging down over the back for about fifty 
minutes, 8 9 10 when they are brought down over the body and the moth 
assumes a very remarkable resting attitude, which is one of its most 
interesting characteristics. 
The front legs are stretched out side by side, straight in front of 
the head, but at a right angle to the axis of the body, the hooks on the 
feet clutching whatever the insect is resting on, the second pair of legs 
being pressed close to the body, whilst the last pair, which are very 
long, just hold on to the support, almost, or quite, covered by the tips 
of the forewings, which just touch each other beyond the body, to 
which, with the hind wings, they are also closely pressed, so that at a 
little distance the moth appears to be clinging by its extended fore¬ 
legs and the tips of its wings only, and resembles a dead, curled-up leaf 
of monkshood, still attached by its stalk. A writer in the Entomoloijist's 
Record, 11 states that the moth rests head downwards, and, when touched, 
lets go with the front legs, and hangs by the hind ones only. I have 
not noticed the inverted position in those I have bred, but they did fall 
and feign death when touched. It seems to be probable that the falling 
is intentional, and the clinging by the hind legs accidental, because it 
would be safer for the insect to fall when menaced. 
The wings are ample, and, as is usual in the genus, there is a tooth 
or hook at the anal angle of the forewings ; in some species this is not 
8 Ent., xxxv., p. 220. 
9 Ent., xxxvi., p. 290. 
10 Ent. Rec., xv., p. 268. 
51 Vol. xiv., p. 245. 
xxii.-xxiii. 
