PRACTICAL HINTS. 



215 



between the warts being reticulated very finely with black net-lik* 

 tracery upon the yellowish -green ground. The head is thickly 

 sprinkled with black warts, without the white rings round them, 

 and from every wart on the larva projects either a white or 

 black hair. Extending the full length of the larva there is a thin 

 black line below the spiracles, edged upon the upper side with a thin 

 white line. Upon the dorsal area are also two lightpr brownish lines 

 closely set together. The larva now appears ratlier more activo 

 than hitherto, but is still very sluggish, scarcely leaving the leaf 

 on which it practically lives from day to day. The casting of this 

 skin w^ould seem to have been a difficult matter, for the whole of 

 the stock succumbed to this o)-deal, save one example. This remain- 

 ing one I placed on fresh food by itself, on which it fed w-ell for 

 a few days until October 1th, when it stopped feeding and prepared 

 to cast the third skin. It evidently was not going to be successful in 

 the ettbrt, for on the 5th it lost its foothold upon the food-plant, and, 

 on the evening of the 5th, after three or four violent movements from 

 side to side, presumably an etibrt to break the skin on the forward 

 segments, it laid still on its side and gave no further evidence of 

 vitality. An examination of the dead larva gave the following results. 

 The ground colour of the entire creature was a pale yellowish-green, 

 the head, legs, claspers, and anal extremity shiny and smooth in 

 surface. The head, legs, claspers, and anal region were sprinkled 

 with small black warts, and the light green ground colour, with tha 

 exception of the head, was covered with minute black dotting. The 

 upper and lateral surfaces of the larva were covered with broken 

 longitudinal rows of black warts, set in white rings, and of the two 

 different sizes. The whole of the warts, on head and body, supplied 

 with either a black or white hair. The space between the warts on 

 the green ground was closely covered with minute black reticulation. 

 On the back ran the two closely set pale brown lines. On the spiracular 

 region, for the entire length of the larva, were the thin black and 

 white lines — the black line not now so evident as at first. The 

 spiracles themselves were oval in shape, set on end, and were light 

 shiny olive-green in colour, the edges gradually darkening in a 

 suffused manner to the outside edge, which was sharply determined by 

 a thin black line. The larva was about /gths of an inch in length at 

 the time of its death. 



JP>RACTICAL HINTS.* 



Field Work for July. 



By .J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



1. — MelcuiipiciH epiphron swarms in early July all over Ben 

 Cruachan, south of the Cruachan Burn, from 1000ft. to 3000ft. 

 elevation. 



2. — Worn females of Tlmia ir-alhian will oviposit freely if sleeved 

 out in the sun on elm in early July, 



3, — From the middle of July into August the imagines of 



* Practical Hints for the Fikld Lkpidopterist, recently published, contains 

 1,250 similar hints to these, distributed over every month in the year. Interleaved 

 (for collector's own notes). — Ed. 



