SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 171 



instances of " mimicry " in imagines, it is among larvae that it is most 

 pronounced. Geometra vernaria, for instance, presents one of the most 

 remarkable cases I can call to mind. The moth, a grecii one, deposits 

 its eggs on the stems of Clematis vitalba. These eggs are green like 

 the stem and are somewhat flat, cylindrical, and laid one on top of 

 another in little steeples of about lo or 13, looking under a glass like a 

 heap of small cheeses, but to the naked eye they might be a leaf-stalk 

 with the leaf broken off or a short tendril. The larva hatches in July 

 or August, and is green like the eggs. They rest on the stems of the 

 foodplant, sticking straight up, holding on merely by the hind claspers ; 

 they have a bifurcate hump on the first segment sticking forward over 

 the head, and the resemblance to a broken leaf-stalk or tendril is most 

 remarkable. It is a hybernating larva, and in the late autumn when the 

 leaves and stems of the Clematis turn brown, the larvae of vernaria 

 turn brown with them ; and in the spring, when they commence to 

 feed again, with the first moult the brown skin is discarded and they 

 become green again like the growing plant, and the disguise all through 

 is complete ; for they spin up among the leaves, turn to a green pupa, 

 and in a week or so the perfect vernaria emerges green also. Every 

 one must have noticed the resemblance of the larvae of the larger 

 Geometry, A. beiularia, B. hirtaria, the " thorns,'' etc., to sticks, and 

 at some time or other, known them as stick caterpillars, and I should 

 think few will doubt that this resemblance is protective. Fewer, per- 

 haps, will have seen the larvae of Aiiticlea sinuata on the seeds of 

 Galium verum, or Cidaria sagittata on Thalictnim Jlavnm, both of 

 which larvae bear marked resemblances to their respective foodplants. 

 Lasiocampa quercifolia is well protected ; in the larval stage they feed 

 by night and rest by day, low down on the stems of the foodplant, I 

 have found them on hawthorn, sallow, blackthorn and buckthorn, and 

 so difficult are they to see that a very general way of collecting them is 

 to feel down the stems for them ; for my own part, I always prefer to 

 trust my eyes. They are very variable, and certainly seem to have a 

 way of adapting their colour to the stems of the bush in which they 

 feed ; for instance, I have, on blackthorn and buckthorn, the stems of 

 which are black and smooth, found most black larvae ; and on sallow 

 and whitethorn, the stems of which are white or mottled grey, found 

 larvae to match — the rule of course not being without exception, but I 

 found it, nevertheless, a rule. Returning to the imagines, I have 

 always wondered at the peculiar prevailing wainscot or grey colouring 

 of most " fen " moths, and a certain general style of the markings, 

 consisting of striations running down the length of the wing from the 

 base to the hind margin ; and when I say " fen " .moths, I do not mean 

 any particular genus or order, but genuine " fen " species of many 

 orders. It is particularly shown in the "wainscots," Lencania, Tapino- 

 stola, JVonagria, etc. Macrogaster arinidinis, Lcelia ccenosa, represent 

 the BoMBYCES ; Hypena cribralis, the Deltoides ; all the Chilos are 

 excellent examples in the Crambid/e; Scoparia pallida and Nascia 

 cilialis, in the Pyralid.e ; Dictyopieryx lorqiiiniana, in the Tortrices ; 

 Gelechia divisella^ obliiella and inor?iafclla, Orthotelia sparganella, and 

 Laverna phraginitella, the Tineina; whilst Peronea hastiana, a well 

 known polymorphic species, is a good illustration in a way. There is 

 a very pretty wainscot coloured form of it, having the before-mentioned 



