?HE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 1 I 



Head: Medium, flattened, reddish, a blackish triangular spot in front, and 

 a wedge-shaped one on each side, some short whitish hairs, and two black 

 branching horns, mandibles black. 



Body: Striped transversely with narrow black and yellow lines ; small 

 thorns on second segment; six branching spines each on third and fourth 

 segments ; seven each on remaining ones, viz. : three on back, yellow; one each 

 side, orange; and one each side, below spiracles, yellow, out of an orange 

 tubercle; spiracles black, encircled with yellow. Four small black dashes on 

 upper part of each segment, viz. : two on each side above second row of spines, 

 and extending backwards diagonally towards each other. Feet reddish, with a 

 black mark on outer side. When at rest, the caterpillar often coils round the 

 stalk of a leaf, with the hinder part of its body raised in the air. 



The general colour of the chrysalis is dark umber brown, slightly mottled 

 with a lighter shade. It has a silvery spot on under side between thorax and 

 abdomen, and is suspended by the tail. The caterpillar became a chrysalis on 

 the 3rd of July, and the perfect insect emerged on the 13th. 



On the 3rd of August my attention was drawn to a small black-currant bush 

 by its peculiar appearance. On a closer examination, I found a number of 

 geometric caterpillars,which were resting themselves in their customary manner, 

 by clinging to the branches with their anal legs, and holding their bodies ex- 

 tended. At a little distance they closely resembled the bare stalks of leaves, 

 and it was this resemblance which led me to seek the cause of the bush being 

 affected in such a manner. I gathered twenty-four of these caterpillars, which 

 were all nearly full grown, and fed them on black-currant leaves in a box of 

 earth; but by the 7th of August they had all descended and changed to pupa? on 

 or just beneath the surface of the ground, without forming any cocoon. 



The following is a description of this larva: — 



Mature larva: Fed on black currant; length 1.75 to 2.00 inches; nearly 

 cylindrical, gradually enlarging to posterior extremity; general color, pea green. 



Head: Greyish green, strongly bilobed. 



Body: Pale green, with a darker green interrupted dorsal line, and indis- 

 tinct broken transverse lines of same color; a yellow cross line on posterior end 

 of each segment, and two small tubercles on second segment close to head. The 

 body is also dotted with very small whitish tubercles, and a few short black 

 hairs -04 inch long; spiracles reddish; feet pale green. Some of the largest of 

 these larva? had a small brown tubercle on each side in front of each spiracle on 

 segment before first pair of prolegs, and a purplish brown ridge on last segment 

 from one spiracle to the other. 



The pupa is -GO to -70 inch long, very stout, and of a dark brown color, with 

 a strong point or thorn at the end of the abdomen. With this exception, it has 

 nothing to distinguish it from that of many of the Bombyciche. The abdomen 

 is slightly flexible. 



These pupa) had remained so long in the earth (since August last), without 

 producing the moth, that I became impatient, and brought a few in a small box 



