"The chrysalis state lasts but a short time, as is the case with all those which are known to suspend themselves nakedly by the tail. At the end of about the tenth day the dark colours of the future butterflies begin to show through the delicate and transparent skin, and suddenly this skin bursts open near the head, and the newborn butterfly gradually extricates itself, and stretching forth its legs and clambering on to some surrounding object, allows its moist, thickened, and contracted wings to hang listlessly from the body."
The perfect insect appears in March and April, hibernated specimens being met with in the spring. It is a most striking species on the wing, and one which, when once seen, is not likely to be forgotten.
(_Diadema nerina_, Butler, Butterflies of N. Z., p. 13. Female.--_Papilio nerina_, Fabr., Syst. Ent., p. 509, n. 277 (1775); Donovan, Ins. of New Holland, pl. 27, fig. 1 (1805). _Papilio iphigenia_, Pap. Exot., 1, pl. lxvii., figs. D, E, (1775). Var. _Papilio proserpina_, Cramer, Pap. Exot., 3, pl. ccxviii., figs. C, D, (1782). Male ? _Papilio auge_, Cramer, Pap. Exot., 2, pl. cxc., figs. A, B (1779).)
(Plate XII., fig. 7 [M], 8 [F], 9 under side.)
This fine species appears to be rare in New Zealand, but I think it has now occurred often enough to entitle it to a place amongst our native butterflies. The following is a list of the captures so far as I am able to ascertain them:--
From Mr. Eny's 'Catalogue of New Zealand Butterflies'[46] the first specimen taken appears to have been a male, which was captured by Dr. Sinclair, of Auckland, and sent to the British Museum before the year 1855. The Rev. Richard Taylor also caught one male specimen in his garden at Wanganui, and saw another, the only { 105}two he observed in thirty-four years. Dr. Baker saw one in his garden at Christchurch on lilac flowers, also a male. Mr. R. W. Fereday[47] records the capture of the first female specimen by a son of Mr. Thomas Tanner, near Napier, in January, 1876. On the 18th of March, 1885, Mr. R. I. Kingsley[48] took a fine female specimen in Nelson, and on the 25th of March, 1886, I saw another female specimen in the same locality; I also understand that quite a number of specimens of both sexes have been recently captured in the neighbourhood of Auckland.[49]