RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241
A HONG KONG BUTTERFLY

65

sides of the creature above the prolegs is yellow-ochre and there is a narrow border of the same colour around the head and the anal segment. The head is black. There are no processes as in the larva of Papilio agamemnon. By 9th July the smallest larva had grown from 9 mm to 15 mm retaining the same coloration. On 10th July it moulted on the surface of the leaf leaving the black skin. The length was constant at 15 mm. The larva was now apple green, darker on the back, with three narrow yellow stripes on the seventh to tenth segments, and a buff line just above the legs from head to tail. The head is celedon green with four circular black spots on the crown, and two more smaller ones at the angle of the jaws.

For observation the larvae were kept in a large glass container which, if covered, keeps the food plant fresher than the ordinary breeding cage. On opening this one morning the pungent scent emitted by the Papilionidae when disturbed was very noticeable, but no amount of interference would induce the larvae to extrude the osmeterium so that the colour could be ascertained.

The green stage of the larva only lasted four days, during which the faint yellow horizontal lines above the prolegs gradually faded out, and the apple green colour rather deepened. The full length attained was 26 mm on the eve of pupation. In all instances but one pupation took place on the underside of the leaf, and not the upperside as recorded by Corbet for L. meges. The pupa is attached by a white cremastral pad, and a very fine silk girdle which is almost invisible, holding the abdomen in contact with the leaf. The shape is very similar to the pupae of P. doson or P. sarpedon, being beaked, but the length is only 22 mm. The colour varied with the background, from yellow-green on young growth, to emerald on mature leaves. The exceptional larva spun up on the glass of the container in a vertical position, head up producing a lilac grey chrysalis. From the beak a seam runs diagonally to the base of the thorax, and another finer line marks the centre of the back for 5 mm when it bifurcates making a roughly elliptical figure to the tail. All pupation was during the hours of darkness. Emergence took place exactly seven days after pupation, but this is the hottest time of the year, the mean temperature being around 85°F. All imagines appeared between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 a.m, standard time. Just before emergence the pupal case is
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241
68

COLONEL V. R. BURKHARDT

The larvae entered the third instar the following day, and 24 hours later measured 13-14.5 mm in length.

The larvae again moulted and entered the fourth instar two days later, and were now between 12-17 mm in length. They were now a much lighter green which corresponds very accurately with the colour of the leaf upon which they rested. Close examination still revealed the presence of tiny black specks on the upper body of the larvae. At the end of this, the fourth and final instar, the larvae were recorded as being 23 to 28 mm in length and were eating voraciously. Pupation took place during the night.

When the larvae pupate on their foodplant in their natural surroundings, pupation always takes place on the underside of the leaf. The pupa are pale green approximately 23 mm in length and closely resemble the colour of the underside of the leaves. Under artificial conditions some of the larvae pupated on wood, which resulted in their being a lilac colour as previously observed by Colonel Burkhardt.

It is of importance to note, that the osmeterium was also quite frequently observed during the various stages, and is recorded as being translucent.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n
132 

W. J. HINTON 

exposed side and stretches along the sheltered bay, while the wind whistles over the roofs of the house to fill the sails of the junks and sampans in the harbour. 

The ridge is more or less covered with drifts of coarse quartz crystals from the two beaches but the decomposed granite of which it is made bears fresh water and several wells are sunk there. The "bells" of the dumbell are much eroded masses of decomposed granite thickly strewn with massive black boulders, and patched with occasional slopes of bare rock on which huge fragments are balanced precariously. Where dykes and bands of more soluble or softer rock have been the hills are deeply trenched, and the narrow glens end in little coves with beaches of coarse quartz sand. Little watercourses make the bottoms of the glens swampy, where they have not been cleared, but in most there are deep pits dug to trap the water, and channels to conserve the flow. There is not enough water to cultivate rice and in the dry season every drop must be saved in the pits, and mingled there with manure to be carried in watering cans and sprayed over the carrots and cabbages in the midst of clouds of flies. 

Natural vegetation is sparse on the whole. The sheltered parts of the glens bear thin woods of China pine, good only for fire-wood, and this has been cut for that purpose in most of the valleys. It is now preserved and planted by the Colonial Government. On the higher slopes wild guava and various myrtles and camellias are the most conspicuous shrubs. There is a coarse tufted grass partly covering the harsh soil, and affording fodder and fuel. 

In the glens are bamboos near the pools and watercourses, and flowering trees like the Persian Lilac. Here in spring a breath of sweetness meets the visitors sickened by the noisome fluid for ever being poured on the little terraces. 

Near the houses are groves of fruit trees, papayas, oranges or bananas. 

The climate is of the usual South China type. That is to say rather like Florida. A hot summer with a weak Southerly monsoon, on which fierce typhoons come riding at intervals, advancing no faster than a ship can steam, but whirling madly at a velocity of over a hundred miles an hour. Woe to the junks who do not get the news in time of their approach to run for shelter!
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