1880.] 227 



Description of larva of Scopula olivalis. — For opportunities of observing the 

 larva of this species, I have been much indebted to the kindness of the Rev. J. Hellins 

 and Mr. W. Jeifrey, during September and October, 1876 — 77, and again to the last- 

 named for further examples of the larva in tlie spring of 1878, from which the moths 

 were bred in the first week of June. 



The several food plants consisted of Samhucus nigra, Galeobdolon luteum, Stachys 

 sylvatica, Mercurialis perennis, Urtica dioica, and Humulus luptilus. 



In autumn, the young larva resides in the twisted top of a leaf or under a part 

 of the edge turned down, sometimes between two leaves partly spun together with 

 white silk, where it feeds at intervals until its third moult, and is about a quarter of 

 an inch long, of a green colour spotted with black, the spots large in proportion, 

 having all the characters of the adult ; it then spins itself up in an opaque white 

 silken oval cocoon-like bibernaculum, firmly and closely attached to part of the 

 under surface of a leaf having the edge turned down, hiding it completely. 



In spring, when the plants begin to put forth new leaves, usually in March, the 

 larva wakes up, feeds, and its growth is soon considerable, so that by the end of the 

 month it becomes nearly half an inch long ; it continues to draw the leaves tightly 

 together around itself with a few threads, as it eats portions out of them, and feeds 

 secure from observation until about the middle of April or the end of the first week 

 in May, according to the season, when it is full fed, though now, and a little before 

 this period, many a larva is slain by that of an ichneumon emerging from the mere 

 skin, which directly afterwards shrivels up. 



The full grown larva measures three quarters of an inch in length, and tapers a 

 little at both ends, the middle segments of the body are rather stout and of plump 

 character, well cut at the divisions especially on the belly, the ventral and anal legs 

 slender ; the ground colour of the head and body is a semi-transparent green, some- 

 times a blackish-green on the back as a dorsal line, but always melting gradually into 

 a paler green on the belly, the skin rather shining ; the glossy head is marked just 

 on the crown of each lobe with a short black streak of freckles and more broadly at 

 the sides with two longer streaks of black freckles, two pairs of minute black dots on 

 the face, the mouth brownish, the antennal papillse tipped with black ; the semi-lunar 

 shining plate on the second segment is of the ground colour but boldly defined at 

 the sides with black blotchy freckles, also in front and back with black dots ; on the 

 third and fourth segments the glossy black spots form a transverse series, the upper- 

 most roundish-ovate, the next semi-lunar, the lower group of three roundish, and a 

 small subdorsal spot occurs behind each of these segments ; the black spots on the other 

 segments are conspicuously large, each dorsal front pair of a rounded-off squarish 

 form, each hinder pair somewhat transversely oval, an extra large spot occurs on the 

 front of the thirteenth, the anal flap bearing a few black dots ; along the sides the 

 row of single large spots are of an irregular form, being squarish above and in front 

 and obliquely hollowed in a concavity behind, wherein occurs the small round black 

 spiracle situated exactly on the whitish tracheal thread, which shows faintly through 

 the skin, below are two more rows of single roundish-ovate spots, and below them 

 on the belly on either side of each segment is a group of two or three minute black 

 dots, the ventral and anal legs tipped with dark brown hooks, all the black spots are 

 most minutely wrinkled and furnished with a fine hair, while the rest of the skin is 

 plump and smooth. 



