1S7G.J 13 



forty shallow ribs, and with faint transverse reticulations; the shell shining; the 

 colour when laid cream white ; in a week becoming whitish with a faint reddish 

 irregular ring and blotches. 



The newly-hatched larva is of the same size as melanopa, but darker in 

 colour, being pale dull purplish, with the head, collar, and anal plate shining blackish, 

 the wai'ts also blackish, distinct, and furnished with very short bristles, the ventral 

 legs on the seventh and eighth small, and not useable. In about a week, the colour 

 changed to pale greenish, except the back, which was brownish, with pale dorsal and 

 sub-dorsal stripes, the head and warts still remaining blackish. 



At the end of the third week from hatching, the larrse were nearly three-quarters 

 of an inch long, and all the ventral legs were used, those on the seventh and eighth, 

 however, being still smaller than the others ; the colour was now deep purplish-brown 

 both above and below, with a white dorsal line, and a faint indication of a sub-dorsal 

 line, but only on the second and thirteenth, the snb-spiracular stripe pale primrose- 

 yellow ; the whole skin soft and velvety ; the head horny. In another week, and 

 after the final moult, the length was nearly an inch ; the purple-brown of the back 

 now obscured by black, and on the sides freckled both with black and with paler 

 brown ; the dorsal whitish line thinner than before, and sometimes interrupted at 

 the divisions by the ground colour, the sub-dorsal, though faint, now showing slightly 

 all its course ; the snb-spiracular stripe becomes brownish-ochreous and freckled with 

 crimson-brown, the belly and legs dark purplish-brown ; the head dark purplish- 

 brown, with a blackish blotch on the corner of each lobe, hard and shining. At 

 the end of the fifth week from hatching, the full length was attained of one inch and 

 three-sixteenths ; the figure slender for a Noctua ; all the ventral legs about the same 

 size ; in the colouring there were two varieties at least, and perhaps, in a larger 

 number of examples, more variation might have been observed ; the lighter variety 

 had the ground colour crimson-brown, all the details much as before, both the pale 

 and the black freckles being more distinct ; the darker variety became almost black, 

 and had only a trace on the end of each segment of the dorsal and sub-dorsal lines ; 

 the sub-spiracular stripe was brown, and tinged with deep lurid red ; the belly 

 sooty-brown. 



All the survivors of both broods, some four or five in number, spun up in long 

 rounded earthen cocoons on the surface of the soil. 



As a postscript to this and the preceding note, I would say, that from the infor- 

 mation I have received from my friends, the natural food of A. eordigera must be 

 Arbutus uva-ursi, and that of A. melanopa probably Menziesia cmrulea, but of this 

 I am not sure ; of course Arhutus unedo and Salix caprcea are only substitute 

 foods. — Id. 



Description of the larva of Acidalia emarginata. — I have several times had the 

 eggs of Acidalia emarginata, but it was not until last year that I succeeded in rearing 

 the larvae to maturity, the specimens being the result of a batch of eggs received 

 from Mr. F. D. Wheeler, of Norwich, on the 29th July, 1874. The eggs are oblong- 

 oval, and, when fresh, are orange colour, but, before hatching, change to purplish-red ; 

 this event took place the day following their arrival. The newly-emerged larva is 

 olive-green, with wainscot-brown head. Being supplied with Polygonum aviculare, 



