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Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/106

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98
PAPILIO MEMNON.

that authors would probably never have thought of associating them, had they not been reared from the same description of caterpillar. The male is entirely without the basal red spot, and the dark ground colour has a greenish reflection; the upper wings have a red or ochreous spot at the base on the under side, and there are likewise four small red marks on the same part of the inferior wings: the latter are deep black anteriorly and cinereous behind; the cinereous portions containing two rows of deep black rounded spots, that next the anal angle encircled with yellow. P. Androgeos of Cramer (pl. 91, A. B.) is a variety of this sex, while the P. Anceus, and P. Laomedon, of the same iconographist are varieties of the female.

The caterpillar, which feeds on the different kinds of Citrus, is described by Dr. Horsfield as of a green colour, with an ocelliform lateral mark on the third segment, and a transverse white band; a band of pale green between the fourth and fifth segments, and an oblique white stripe on the eighth and ninth; the anal segment likewise of that colour. The anterior part of the body is considerably attenuated, similar to what is observed in the caterpillars of many of the Hawkmoths. Chrysalis green, reddish-yellow on the back.

This insect is found in China, and the islands of the Indian Ocean, and is rather a common species.