_Charaxes Jasius._
S. Europe.
_Lizars sc_]
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]”.
[Illustration: