1905.] 133 



four of these were laid beneath a loose flake of wood at the bottom of a chip box, a 

 very large number between the side of the box and a blade of grass that was coiled 

 round the inside of it, a few much smaller batches were also laid on the outer side 

 of this grass blade, and still others between the folds of a short length of ribbon 

 grass. These ova are compai-atively freshly laid and are full and rounded, quite 

 unlike the ova of favicolor, which, however, were about to hatch when I examined 

 them, so that the comparison may not be of much value. They are fairly firm and 

 are quite easily detached, nearly globular in shape, just a trifle flattened at base, 

 with a diameter of between 6 and 7 mm. They are certainly delicate, but do not 

 mei'it (as yet) the description of mere shapeless transparent skins, applied to favi- 

 color just before hatching. A sharp but very delicate slightly raised cell pattern is 

 visible on the surfaces that have not come in contact with the sides of the cavity in 

 which they are laid, or the adjoining eggs. These cells run together at the top and 

 form a delicate micropylar rosette. Such fragments of shell as have not been eaten 

 by the \a,rvis oi favicolor give no evidence of any value, either negative or positive 

 on comparison. 



t/tt^^ 2l4<, 1903. — Young larvcB of favicolor well groion in \st skin. Head, 

 small, roimded, and slightly notched on the crown, surface polished of semi-trans- 

 parent appearance ; the colour of one of the larvae under examination was bright 

 brown, of another it was very much darker and nearly black in places. The head is 

 now carried in a more vertical position than when freshly hatched. 



Body. — This tapers from head to first abdominal segment, and from thence 

 very gradually to the anus. The segments are very plainly marked, they show five 

 sub-divisions on the meso- and meta-thorax, four only on the abdominal segments, 

 but as division between the first two is very faint the appearance is rather of one 

 large and two small ones. Both prothoracic and anal plates are clearly marked but 

 somewhat paler than the head. The tubercles are noticeable, having black chiti- 

 nous bases bearing short brown hairs j the true legs are either black or dark brown ; 

 prolegs not distinctively coloured, the first pair not fully developed, but the second 

 pair are used ; the mode of progression is normally a quick, jerky crawl, though 

 occasionally the larva loops considerably in the usual Noctuid fashion. The colours 

 are dark green above, paler beneath, and they frequently appear patchy owing to 

 the food in the intestines showing as a dark mass. There is a faint and narrow 

 medio-dorsal streak and a similar but double line on the subdorsal area, there is 

 also a sharp line of demarkation at the juncture of the ventral and lateral 

 colouration. 



Tubercles i and ii on meso- and meta-thorax are situated in transverse line, the 

 inner tubercle being the smaller of the two; iii is situated in almost vertical line 

 beneath ii, and below this is iv bearing a weaker hair than the others, it also has a 

 small extension that gives the impression of there being two tubercles side by side ; 

 V is slightly to the front at a lower level, and the subprimary behind not quite so 

 low as V ; another subprimary vi below v is represented by a minute tubercle and 

 hair, vii just above base of legs, is a single haired tubercle. On the abdominal 

 segments i and ii are set as normally at the corners of a trapezoid ; iii is a short 

 distance above the small dark coloured spiracle which might easily be itself 

 mistaken for a tubercle if it were not for the absence of a hair. The spiracle is 



