202 iFcbruaiy, 



The white egg is very small, roundish, flat, and scale-like at first, 

 and most difiicult to detect when laid on a white surface, but by the 

 seventh or eighth day the margin becomes rounded or raised, and, like 

 the rest of the upper surface, a little convex ; the shell then is seen to 

 be minutely pitted, and through it the whitish, wax-like, opaque, faint 

 form of the larva coiled round can be just discerned : on the ninth 

 day it shows more distinctly, and on the tenth the head can be plainly 

 seen as a black spot on the margin ; the shell pearly and glistening ; 

 and after this the larva hatches in a few hours. 



"When hatched, the larva, at first, is semi-pellucid, whitish, and 

 glistening, with a black head, it soon begins to feed, and when but a 

 day old shows a dark greenish-grey dorsal line ; it eats out little pits 

 and channelled depressions on the under surface of a leaf, and by the 

 third day even pierces quite through it. In about a week the first 

 moult well over it is rather broadly and very faintly tinged with 

 greenish on the back, and with a green dorsal line, head black ; at the 

 end of a fortnight it is a quarter of an inch long, and still having a 

 black head, yet the body begins to show faintly some of the characters 

 which will afterwards mark the adult, such as black specks on either 

 side the second segment, the growing opacity and whiteness generally 

 under the skin of the back, and the translucent green colour of the 

 dorsal line : at the next moult, within five more days, the black head 

 piece is finally cast off, and the general appearance very similar to 

 that of the mature larva, excepting only that the back is often of a 

 more silvery whiteness. After another moult the growth increases 

 considerably, and after the last operation of this nature, the full 

 growth is soon developed, for its appetite also increases in proportion, 

 and large pieces are eaten from the leaves as well as large holes through 

 them, so that, at this period, the indications of its presence on a plant 

 are sufficiently obvious. 



Its habits from the first is to hide itself by drawing together, 

 with white silk, a part of a leaf, or to fold under a part of one edge ; 

 afterwards to partially join two leaves together so as to conceal itself ; 

 and latterly to lie in a very slight and o2)en web of a few fine threads, 

 which, spun on the under surface of a leaf, create and retain the 

 hollow the larva designs to dwell in ; and where it finds a secure 

 footing, stretched out on the threads. 



The full-grown larva varies from f to nearly | inch in length, 

 moderately stout along the middle of the body and attenuated at each 

 end, the head flattened, widest near the m»uth, which is rather promi- 



