The colour is now dirty green in all specimens, the skin being finely shagreened.
Third Stage.
The second moult, occurring after another period of four days, does not bring any change of marking, the colour only becoming somewhat darker. Length, twelve millimeters.
Fourth Stage.
The third moult (after another four days) likewise brings only a change of colouring, which is of such a nature that the caterpillar becomes dimorphic. At the same time that peculiar roughening of the skin takes place which, in the case of Chærocampa, was designated as “shagreening.” The colour is now light grass-green in some specimens, and dark green in others; in these last the subdorsal line is edged above with dark brown, and the spiracles are also of this colour. Length, seventeen millimeters.
Fifth Stage.
Four days later, after the fourth ecdysis, the dimorphism becomes a polymorphism. Five chief types can be distinguished:—
Variety I.—Light green (Fig. 7, [Pl. III].); dorsal line, blackish-green, strongly marked; subdorsal line broad, pure white, edged above with dark green; spiracular line, chrome-yellow; horn, black, with yellow tip and blue sides. Spiracles, blackish-brown, with narrow yellow border; legs, and extremities of prolegs, vermilion-red.
Variety II.—Blackish-brown (Fig. 6, [Pl. III].); head and prothorax, yellowish-brown; markings the same as above.
Variety III.—Blackish-green or greenish-black (Figs. 10 and 11, [Pl. III].); subdorsal line with blackish-green border above, gradually passing into a light green ground-colour; spiracular line, chrome-yellow; head and prothorax, greenish-yellow.