LIFE -HISTORIES. 



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green stripe down the back ; spiracles large, especially the two anal 

 pairs, whitish, edged with deep black ; horn blackish-brown, paler at 

 base; head green, shield-shaped, and in one case with a black streak 

 down each side. By the 18th, faint, oblique, pale streaks, edged above 

 with darker green, developed along the sides, and a faint row of false 

 spiracle-looking markings above the true spiracles; claspers dusky. The 

 next day they were exactly 1 inch in length, and had laid up for their third 

 moult by midday, and on the 20th one was in its fourth instar, and the 

 others by 8 a.m. on the 21st. Progress was now very rapid, and, by 

 the following day, they were 1^ inches long, and no longer so slender 

 in proportion, ground colour green still. One, however, was very 

 handsomely marked with a broad purplish -black stripe along the back, 

 broken up on each segment with a green kite-shaped marking, the 

 point towards the head ; along the sides on each segment was a black 

 oblique stripe, edged below with paler green running up to the black dorsal 

 marking, the spiracles large and of a bright orange colour surrounded 

 by black ; horn green below but black above, shading to green at the 

 tip, the whole surface being dotted with white ; head green, with 

 black edging and black streak down each lobe. The other two were 

 without the dorsal marking and much plainer in appearance. Anal 

 pair of claspers green, with black edging, the others black outside but 

 green underneath ; prolegs black. By the 25th they were nearly 2 

 inches long and eating large quantities of C. arvennis, which they seem 

 to prefer. As an experiment I now tried a leaf of lettuce, which is 

 recorded as a foodplant in Madiera, but they would have none of it, 

 and stuck to the C. arvem^h. In Barrett's Lepidoptera, vol. ii., it is noted 

 that " this species does not appear to assume the Sphinx-like attitude 

 so common in its allies," but I have several times seen them resting 

 with head thrown back, though usually they lie straight along the 

 stems when not feeding. On October 26th, all three were laid up by 

 midday for their fourth moult, length If inches. This proved a more 

 protracted operation than previous moults, since none had finished till 

 8 a.m. on the 28th, when the first was in its fifth instar, the second by 

 1.15 p.m., and the third by 10 p.m. The following day they had all 

 assumed the adult colouring, which has been ah'eady described and 

 figured, and into which I, therefore, need not go. — James W. Corder, 

 Ashbrook Terrace, Sunderland. October'dOth, IdOS. [The larvae fed 

 up to full size, became 4in. in length, and have now been down for 

 some days.— J. W. C. 21/11/03.] 



Note on the egg of Cossus cossus (ligniperda). — Height about 

 l-5mm., diameter 1mm. The eggs appear to be laid either in short 

 rows, end to end, or in little heaps. Each separate egg is very 

 characteristically intermediate between an " upright " and " flat " egg. 

 It has the characteristic oval outline of a flat egg, but with the 

 micropylar end rather wider than its nadir, looked at in the direction 

 of its long axis, whilst, looking down upon the micropyle, one finds 

 that it is circular in outline with a well-defined micropylar area and 

 ill-developed longitudinal ribs leading up to the micropyle. The egg 

 is very distinctly parti-coloured, the basal half (treating it as an 

 upright egg) being of a pale creamy-white in tint, the upper half 

 strongly mottled with dark brown. The basal area is somewhat flat- 

 tened, as if it might be sometimes laid on end and that this was done 

 sufficiently often to give it a marked impress in this direction, whilst 



