4 [Juiit, 



1 fouud tlie Colchester larva, when but live days old, lyiug dead 

 where it had been feeding on the edge of a leaf, the cause of this mis- 

 hap betrayed by the state of the food, which could not be changed the 

 day before without risk, as three of the larvae just a week old were fixed 

 for moulting, each on a coating of silk, spun either on the glass cylinder, 

 or on the side or tip of a sallow leaf ; the other larva, not previously 

 visible for a day or two, now made its appearance again, having already 

 completed its first moult, furnished with remarkably long and stout 

 horns, cleft at the dark reddish tips ; this I noted as No, 1, a very 

 lively and active little creature, roaming over the sallow leaves for an 

 hour or two after its removal from the rest before establishing its 

 footing on a leaf point. 



On the tenth day, No. 2 on the cylinder, moulted ; on the twelfth 

 day, No. 3 on a leaf tip, had also moulted, both furnished with horns 

 like No. 1. The remaining larva moulted on the thirteenth day, but 

 without horns, the head being much the same as before, though the 

 colouring of the body was changed like the others, viz., to a bright 

 green, with yellowish sub-dorsal stripes on the six anterior segments, 

 and yellow slanting lines along the sides, the points of the tail 

 brought close together appearing very like one anal point, ringed 

 with red ; this hornless larva fed and seemed very lively and well up 

 to the twenty-first day, when it s])un a layer of silk on a leaf, on which 

 it remained quietly for a couple of days, then at intervals struggling 

 and contorting itself during two more, and, in course of the day fol- 

 lowing, it died with its front segments rigidly curved backward. 



From the end of August my attention was devoted to the three 

 survivors, of which No. 1 had moulted a second time on August 21st, 

 a third time on the 28th, and a fourth time on September 5th, when 

 it was a little over one inch in length ; on the 11th, it fixed itself for 

 its fifth moult on silk spun upon the glass cylinder, and measured then 

 one and three-eighths of an inch in length ; by the 21st, it had attained 

 its greatest length of two inches, and was stout in proportion. From 

 this date, although continuing to feed well, it appeared to be getting 

 shorter by slow degrees, and the few scattered purplish-black points 

 as usual appeared, and, by the 25th, had greatly increased, forming 

 dark blotches on the back of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth segments, 

 the green general ground colour becoming paler ; in the afternoon of 

 this day, it left its favourite silk carpeted leaf, where latterly it always 

 returned to rest after every meal made on other leaves, and took up a 

 position on a stem, head downwards, the head and front segments 

 hanging free, but in half-an-hour it removed to another stem where, in 



