THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



103 



whitish glossy surface. As squeezed from the body of the insect they 

 are not much more than half this size, which indicates that they must 

 expand considerably after being laid. The exterior of the e^g is thin 

 and elastic, and contracts and shrivels up as the young larva escapes ; the 

 usual duration of the egg stage is from a week to ten or twelve days. 



The larvae or worms, when first hatched, are about one-twelfth of an 

 inch long, with a greenish white, semi-transparent body and a large head, 

 having a dark round spot on each side. At first they eat small holes in 

 the leaf on which they are placed, as shown at 2 and 3, fig. 17, feeding 

 in company, from 20 to 40 on a leaf, the soft parts of which they soon 

 consume, leaving nothing but the frame-work ; as they increase in size 

 they eat the veins as well down nearly to the foot-stalks, and, travelling 

 from leaf to leaf, they soon strip the branch on which they have 

 been located, when they spread to other parts of the bush, which is 

 sometimes stripped quite bare of foliage by these marauders in a few 

 days. 



Fig. 18 represents the larva nearly full grown. It is then about three- 

 fourths of an inch long, with a black head and a bluish green body, 



becoming yellowish on the hinder 



Fiff. IS. 



segments and on the sides. Its 

 whole upper surface is thickly 

 covered with small, shining black 

 tubercles or raised dots, from 

 each of which arises a single 

 black hair. Low down on each 

 side, in a line with the spiracles, 

 is a row of larger black tubercles 

 from each of which there arises 

 several short black hairs ; the 

 terminal segment has a patch of 

 black above. The under surface 

 is pale bluish green, growing 

 yellowish towards the extremities, 



with a few faint brownish dots ; feet nearly covered with patches of black. 



Prolegs — of which there are seven pairs — pale greenish. After the last 



moult, just before entering the chrysalis state, it becomes of a uniform 



plain green color, tinged with yellow. 



Having completed its growth, its chief concern now is in the selection 



of a suitable place in which to pass the chrysalis stage of its existence. 



