The Butterflies of the British IslesSouth, Richard
Science
The Butterflies of the British Isles
South, Richard
Butterflies -- Great Britain; Butterflies -- Great Britain -- Identification; Lepidoptera -- Great Britain
"When full fed the larva becomes rapidly paler, and then suspends
itself by the anal prolegs to a stem of the honeysuckle or other
surface, and hangs with its body downwards in a sinuous curve, with its
head bent a little upwards, facing the abdomen; it then remains
motionless for three days, becoming whitish on the abdomen, and
remaining very pale green on the thoracic segments. In the course of the
third day the creature seems to wake up, unbends its head, swings itself
to and fro a few times, then stretches itself downwards in a long
attenuated line, which causes a rupture of the skin close to the head;
the skin then is seen slowly to ascend, exposing the bare and soft
shining parts below, from which a flat and forked pair of horns grow out
perceptibly as one beholds this wonderful process; the skin continues to
glide slowly upwards, and as the soft parts become exposed, they are
seen to swell out laterally, and to assume the very singular projections
so characteristic of this chrysalis, the skin of the old head gliding up
the belly marks the progress of the disclosure, as the colour of the old
and new surfaces is at this time alike, the new being, however, rather
more shining and transparent. Occasionally during the bulging out of the
soft parts, a kind of convulsive heave or two occurs, but otherwise it
remains still until the creature is uncovered as far as the ninth or
tenth segment; it then curves its anal extremity by a sudden twist
laterally, and in a moment dexterously withdraws the tip of the anal
segment from the larval prolegs by an opening on the back of the skin at
that part. At this critical moment one has time to see that the naked
shining point is furnished with black hooks, and to apprehend a fall;
but in another moment the pupa has forcibly pressed the curved tip with
its hooks against the stem close to the previous attachment of the anal
prolegs, and now it is strongly and firmly fixed. The creature now seems
endowed with wonderful power and vigour; it swings boldly to and fro,
and undulates itself as if to gain longer swings, when presently the old
skin that remains is seen to burst away and fall off, the chrysalis
gradually becoming quiescent, the entire metamorphosis, from the first
waking to the last movement, occupying nearly seven minutes. In sixteen
days the perfect insect emerged."
Linnæus in 1767 wrote of the sexes of this butterfly as _sibylla_, or
rather _sibilla_, and _camilla_, but, as Kirby points out, three years
earlier the same author had given the butterfly the name _camilla_. It
is probable, therefore, that the latter name will have to be adopted for
our butterfly. Certain it is that the older British authors--Donovan,
Haworth, Stephens, etc., knew our species as _camilla_. The species
known on the Continent as _camilla_, and which, owing to the confusion
of names has been supposed to be British, will have to be called
_drusilla_, according to Kirby.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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