16 



reaching- a leaf-bud in which it can hide. From observations 

 detailed later, it may be gathered that the flat eggs are usually laid 

 in June or July in pairs, one partly overlapping the other, and that 

 the moth then covers them with scales from her body and with 

 debris from the oal< bark. Eggs so deposited would be extremely 

 difficult to discover. This species hibernates in the egg stage and 

 the larva, making a small almond-shaped hole in the top of the egg- 

 shell, crawls out at the end of April or beginning of May. It has a 

 black head and a dull ochreous-grey body. On leaving the egg the 

 larva makes its way to a leaf-bud that has just burst and hides it- 

 self in the interior. I have seen them wandering over buds still 

 enclosed in the brown scales, and they appear to have no power of 

 biting through the scales as the larvje of some other species do. The 

 young oak leaves break through the scales at the apex of the bud, 

 and it is here where the larva enters. It remains in the interior of 

 the bud, out of sight, until at least after its first change of skin. 

 Sometimes it spins a few threads of silk over its dwelling, but these 

 do not prevent the bud from expanding. After feeding for a day or 

 two on the tender leaves in the heart of the bud it becomes more 

 slender, paler in colour, and developes a dark band, visible both 

 dorsally and ventrally ; this is not a pigmented mark but is internal 

 and appears to be the digestive organ and its contents. 



After about four days from its entry into the bud, the larva, 

 having eaten out a small chamber, lies up for its first change of 

 skin. This it usually accomplishes in about twenty-four hours. 

 If during these five days the oak bud has not much expanded, the 

 larva will pass its second stadium in the interior. But if, as fre- 

 quently happens, the bud has begun to spread, the larva will take 

 up its abode on the mid-rib of a leaf not yet fully expanded, where 

 it is protected by the two sides of the leaf folding over above it. In 

 this d-welling it lives feeding chiefly at the apex of the leaf. Except 

 in size its appearance is scarcely altered. In the first two stadia the 

 very minute larvag are weak and inactive. They are difficult to dis- 

 cover as they remain so well hidden in the young reddish- brown 

 oak leaves. 



After another three or four days the larva, changing its skm a 

 second time, reaches the third stage in its life cycle. Here it makes 

 a distinct advance. The black tubercles, forming so conspicuous a 

 feature in the older larva, now become visible, and the caterpillar 

 itself is much more active than when younger. It now forms a 

 dwelling by turning down the edge of a leaf and fastening it with 

 silk threads. It feeds on the cuticle and the parenchyma of the 

 leaf inside its dwelling and also eats out holes in the leaf. It is 

 still of an ochveous-grey with a broad smoky band. 



At the end of a further period of four or five days, it again under- 

 goes a change of skin. The larva reaches this, the fourth stage, 

 about the second week in May. It is now about 7mm. in length 

 and fairly stout, the head and thoracic shield are black, while the 



