is:*;.] 135 



colouring and texture, until it becomes uniformly like polished wliite 

 ivory, and, after remaining a few days in thia state, begins to spin its 

 cocoon. 



By the 25th of September, all my larvje had spun themselves up 

 in strong and closely woven silken cocoons, transparent at first, but as 

 soon as they were made thicker, changing to a flesh colour, and in 

 course of a week to pale brownish. 



Gruenee (viii, p. 3G4i) says of this species, "Elle est bien dis- 

 " tincte de la samhucalis, quoiqu'en disc Duponchel. Sa chenille vit 

 " sur la Parietaire, et aussi sur le Stachys sylvestris, an dire de G-ermar, 

 " qui la decrit ainsi : Larva obesa, riir/osa, glabra, sub-pellucida, alba, 

 " habitat in foUis Stachys sylvestris coiitortis : " but it seems to me 

 this description by Germar does not suit the larva until it is about 

 to spin. 



LJ. sambucaUs. AVhen setting myself to look for this species, I 

 first tried the tall bushes, with stiff leaves, but meeting with no success 

 on them, I then tried some young growth of Sambuciis nigra a foot or 

 two high, and soon found several larvse, each of them lying under a 

 whitish silken web spun on the under surface of a leaf, and causing a 

 narrow fold, which though slight was perceptible even on the upper 

 surface ; when the leaf was turned up, the larva was seen lying in the 

 hollow, covered with this semi-transparent screen of silk, open at each 

 end, and from this at night it woi;ld emerge to feed on other parts of 

 the leaf. The smallest example I found was from three-eighths to half- 

 an-inch long, and very slender, of a pale watery greenish tint, having 

 a deeper green dorsal stripe, ibordered on each side with a stripe of 

 faint semi-opaque Avhitish-grey, all the rest of the body rather 

 translucent. 



The full grown larva is f to | inch in length, of slender proportions, 

 fusiform, the head in line with the body, the segments sub-divided by 

 a wrinkle on the back of each, while on the belly they are plump and 

 well divided ; all the legs slender, the anal pair extended behind the 

 body. In colour, the head is of a pale semi-pellucid watery greenish 

 tint, having a faint tinge of flesh colour, the second segment similar, 

 but with a broad dorsal triangular mark behind, of a bright and full 

 semi-transparent green, from which the dorsal pulsating stripe of the 

 same colour proceeds ; on either side of this, is a wider stripe, though 

 much attenuated in front and a little behind, of semi-opaque ivhitish- 

 green, having a few small green freckles transversely near the front 

 of each segment; the segmental folds yellowish; below, is an equally wide 

 stripe of the full semi-transparent green, somewhat softened above 



