T A B . XII.
P A P I L IO P A S S I F L O R J S .
G R E A T A M E R IC A N F R IT IL L A R Y .
P A S S IF L O R A IN C A R N A T A . 1. 1XX.
MAY-COCK. OK FLESH-COLOURED PASSION-FLOWER.
P. N. a]is dentatis fulvis nigro maculatis: fubtus maculis triginta argenteis.
Papilio Paffiflorse. Fair. Enionr. emend. V. 4. 60.
P. Vanillas. Linn. Syft. N at. 787*
On e , o f thefe Caterpillars tied itfelf up by the tail Ju ly 8th, changed to a chryfalls
gth, came forth in its perfect Hate 17th. This Ipecies is fometimes plentiful, b u t
in.fome years very rare. I t is n o t in Virginia. Its food is th e maycock, PqJJi-
Jiora incarnata, th e pod o f wh ich w hen ripe is full o f feeds furrounded w ith pale
yellowifh pulp, tailing like an orange, b u t fainter, and is eaten b y many people.
T h e plant is a troublefome weed w hen it gets any footing.
We adopt the. alteration of the name of this fly by Profefior Fabricius, becaufe Mr. Abbot’s
obfervations confirm thofe of Mr. Von Rohr *, that its real food is of the paffion-flower
kind; and although it may alfo eat vanilla, yet being found in climates where that tender
and local plant never grows, it mull certainly have fomething elfe to depend on. The paffion
flower and the vanilla are both placed by Linnaeus in his heterogeneous clafs Gynandria:
we fhall not from this infedt’s feeding on both draw an argument of their affinity, and thence
of the naturalnefs of the Linnsean fyftem. That would be as little to the purpofe as many
tilings that have been urged againft this famous fyftem; more efpecially as the genus o f Paf-
Jiflora does not in any manner properly belong to Gynandria, but is rightly removed, by the
celebrated Schreber, to Pentandria Trigynia, the ftamina not being inferted above the germen,
but below it.
Fair. /oc. cit.