1879.] 243 



sought the young tender shoots, eating a portion from under a leaf, 

 then a little from another leaf, or moved away entirely, creeping over 

 the ground and through all impeding growths, until, with unerring 

 instinct, another shoot, sooner or later, was reached : thus, was I con- 

 tinually losing sight of one or more of the larvae, often for days 

 together, but only to find them again by aid of new blotches appearing 

 to betray them. 



Towards the end of April, they ravaged so recklessly the small 

 stock of their food remaining in the pot, never staying to clear the 

 whole under-side of a leaf, but changing their quarters so often, that 

 I began to fear they would desert the pot and escape altogether ; for 

 at that time I was unable to obtain a fresh supply of their food, and, 

 to make sure of completing my observations of the larva when full grown, 

 I confined the two largest individuals in a bottle, and supplied them with 

 cut portions of their food, on which they throve, and therein attained 

 their full growth of barely half an inch, and on the 15th of May one 

 fixed itself for pupation by a cincture across the back of the fourth 

 segment, on a bit of linen, the second followed in the same way on the 

 leth, and on the 21st and 24th they changed to pupae. The two 

 remaining larvae soon after fixed themselves, but died unchanged, 

 probably the effect of insufficient food. 



The newly-hatched larva is very minute, with a glistening blackish 

 head, stoutish body, of light drab-green colour, velvety, and hairy ; 

 its size is doubled in eight days ; and when a month old, it is of the 

 usual Lt/ccB)ia-sh.a,])e, one line in length, thick in proportion, with 

 small retractile head, the body of a dull pinkish-brown colour, with 

 darker dorsal stripe, and rather hairy. 



On waking up in spring, it is of a dingy slaty-green colour, and 

 early in March it moults, when the old skin is left attached to the 

 plant like an empty shell, not in the least shrivelled, but split open 

 laterally along the ridge above the legs ; the larva now becomes quite 

 pale green on the back, broadly pinkish along the lateral ridge, and 

 still hairy. Early in April it is nearly an eighth of an inch long, of 

 greenish-flesh colour, palest on the second segment and dorsal emi- 

 nences, pinkish in the dorsal hollow, and also along beneath the 

 spiracular region, the long whitish hairs closely resembling those on 

 the food plant. 



The last moult occurs about the 21st of April, when it is three- 

 sixteenths of an inch long, and attains its full-growth of barely half 

 an inch early in May ; during this interval, of all its characteristic 

 details, which have been published as Artaxerxes (vide vol. v, p. 176), 



