42 " fJuIy, 



in the comparison of the frequent variations. I hope otlier men, better known to 

 your readers than me, will take up the subject and urge it upon general attention, 

 for want of interest in all things continental is at present justly a reproach to us. — 

 N. T. DoBKEE, The New Walk, Beverley : May, 1877. 



Description of the larva, Sfc, of Earias chlorana.— On July 7th, 1875, Mr. A. 

 Thurnall sent me for identification three larvse, which he had found in little bundles 

 of leaves on the topmost twigs of osiers. I had never seen the species in this stage 

 before, and did not at once remember what I had read of it, nor was it till the 

 larvae, on spinning up against the side of their cage, gave me a further clue to their 

 identity, that I looked at the right page of Stainton's Manual, and found all I 

 wanted : I had before been looking for them among the Bombycina, thus uncon- 

 sciously paying tribute to the correctness of the new arrangement, which places 

 Earias in that family ; and I have noted below the little points which all tended to 

 give me that impression. 



I should say I bred the moths on June 11th and 13th, 1876. 



When full-fed this larva was from f to | inch long, with sixteen legs, stout and 

 thick in figure, thickest in the middle and front segments, less so behind ; when it is 

 at rest, and is viewed sideways the back is seen to rise gradually from the second 

 segment to the sixth, and thence to fall as gradually to the eleventh, then to rise 

 again on the twelfth and fall to the end of the thirteenth ; the liead fits into the 

 second segment, within which it is often withdrawn as in vinula ; on the third, 

 fourth, and sixth segments occur pairs of rather pointed tubercles, small on the 

 third and fourth, conspicuously larger on the sixth ; again on the back of the 

 twelfth are two pi'ominent tubercles blunt-tipped as in camelina ; the anterior 

 segments more deeply divided than the others, the skin soft and wrinkled trans- 

 versely on the back as far as the spiracles as in cueullina ; the ventral and anal legs 

 of thick proportions : in colour the head is lightish green with a large round blackish 

 frontal spot on each lobe, a blackish transverse streak above the mouth which is itself 

 dark brown, the papillae whitish : the ground colour of the back is whitish, in one 

 variety pinkish, with a thin dorsal line and a broad sub-dorsal, lateral and spiracular 

 stripes of light rust-brown, the sub-dorsal stripe being broadest and suddenly very 

 much darker brown at the tubercles on the sixth segment, continuing thence dark 

 towards the head ; the tubercles and front portion of the sub-dorsal stripe on the 

 twelfth segment also equally dark rust-brown ; the spiijacles are black surrounded 

 broadly with whitish, and close beneath them runs an inflated stripe of pure white, 

 the belly and legs very pale bluish-green, their hooks dark brown ; in addition to the 

 more conspicuous tubercles mehtioned the other usual situations have whitish wart- 

 like spots, each bearing a fine soft hair. Just before spinning one of the larvae 

 became of a light olive-greenish tinge all over — the other a pinkish flesh-colour. 



The cocoon is about f inch in length by -^-^ in width, closely and firmly attached 

 to the surface on which it is made, its shape suggests the idea of a broad boat turned 

 bottom upwards and rather prominently keeled at one end by what is really a bluntly 

 beaked projection inclined a little upward, while at the rounded-off opposite end 

 are two rather long silken moorings, the base and sides of each converging into 

 tapering points which seem outworks of additional security ; the colour of the 

 cocoon is naturally of a light drab, the projection dark greyish-brown ; but like 

 vinula the larva, in finishing ofF the exterior, pickg up particles from the neighbouring 



