1882.) 79 



lu about ten or eleven clays after the third moult its full growth 

 is attained, and the length is 18 mm., its stoutness in proportion, taper- 

 ing from the third segment to the head, also at the two hinder segments ; 

 beyond the thoracic each segment is subdivided by a deep wrinkle 

 across the middle of the back and again by one nearer the front and 

 another nearer the end, the two central portions, bearing the trape- 

 zoidal large roundish spots, are very plump, a similar spot is on the 

 side, another beneath the spiracle and another is lower and farther 

 behind, near the belly ; the colour of the head and second segment is 

 bright olive-green and very shining, the lobes of the head are marked 

 on the crown with black and with fine black freckles on the face, the 

 plate is also finely freckled with black, all the rest of the body has a 

 very dull purple skin relieved by large black and minutely wrinkled 

 spots, especially while the larva lies at rest, but when roused up into 

 activity the purple hue still becomes a little neutralized by the green 

 interior, this change of colour seems to be caused by extreme tenuity 

 of the skin at such times, when it allows the green to show partly 

 through, and to glisten slightly at the divisions and increase the soft 

 lustre of the black spots ; when, however, the larva shortens itself 

 and the skin shrinks, it obscures the green beneath, much as the skin 

 of a purple grape obscures the green pulp within ; each spot bears a 

 fine hair ; the spiracles are small, round and black ; the anterior legs 

 green, the ventral and anal legs are translucent and almost colourless. 



The cocoon is of whitish silk, which, after a few weeks, turns of a 

 light flesh-colour, its shape is oval, about 11 mm. long, and composed 

 of a coarser outer structure and a more compact and finer texture 

 within. 



The empty pupa-skin was found to have nothing remarkable iu 

 its form but a rounded knob at the abdominal tip furnished with 

 widely diverging, fine, curly-topped bristles attached to the lining, its 

 length being 7 mm. ; in colour darkish brown and rather shining. 



Emsworth : August IQth, 1882. 



A CONTEIBUTION TO THE LIFE HISTORY OF SPERCEEUS 

 EMARGINATUS. 



BY THE EEV. W. W. FOWLEE, M.A., F.L.S. 



About the 16th of last May, Mr. Billups kindly sent me two live 

 specimens of SpercTieus emarginatus taken at West Ham. I put them 

 into a glass globe of water to watch their habits : the first thing that 

 struck me was the peculiar way in which they walked on the under- 



