PLATE 16.
Lizars sc.
Charaxes Jasius.
S. Europe.
The female scarcely differs in appearance from the male, except in having the under side of the hinder wings finely sprinkled in the middle with blue points.
“The Jasius butterfly is one of the largest, rarest, and most beautiful of the European diurnal Lepidoptera. It occurs in the southern countries of France, for example, in the neighbourhood of Lyons, the Isles d’Hières, near Toulon and Montpellier; also in Italy, Sicily, Corsica, some parts of Northern Africa, and in Asia Minor. Lefebure de Cerisy of Toulon has payed considerable attention to the metamorphoses of this fine insect. The caterpillar, which in its early stage is green, becomes afterwards of a yellowish hue, and its skin is as it were shagreened and transversely plaited. Its head is singularly armed with four vertical yellow horns tipped with red, of which the two intermediate are the longest. A yellow line passes along each side of the body in the region of the stigmata, and the back is marked with four indistinct orange spots. The true feet are black, the membranous ones green. It feeds on the leaves of the strawberry tree, and never eats except during the night. Its habits are very lethargic. During day-light it remains fixed and motionless on its favourite plant, which it resembles in colour, and thus escapes observation. The chrysalis is smooth, thick, carinated, and of a coriaceous texture, the colour pale green. Two broods or flights of the perfect insect are produced each year, the first in June, the second in September. The caterpillars of the autumnal brood survive the winter, and are not transformed into chrysalids till the ensuing May. The perfect insects are then produced in about fifteen days. These speedily deposit their eggs, which are hatched in June, and after three months occupied in the usual transformations, the second flight appears in September, and continues the race in the manner above mentioned. In many parts of France the butterfly is named the Pacha with two Tails[33]”.
PLATE 17.
Lizars sc.
1. Nymphalis Ethiocles.
Africa. 2. 3. N. Tiridates.
Java.