KIUTHKU NOTES ON OROYlA SPLENDIDA. 197 



we found the plant and law* at higher levels somewhat to the west. 

 Above the Santuario the larva is found up to 600ft. oi' 800ft. higher, but 

 is rare, and lives then on R. acetosella. Odd larv* were met with on 

 broom and heath, but these were clearly stragglers that had to make 

 the best of it when they had lost their way. Otherwise these plants 

 would have afforded quantities of larv* instead of only an odd one. 



My larv* in confinement did not do very badly, on the whole, better 

 than 1 expected, since keeping them in a box along with a number 

 of others was certain to be obnoxious to a larva whose habits involved 

 solitude in an airy and exjoosed position. I had, moreover, to starve 

 them a little on some occasions, and to feed them on H. acetaxa and //. 

 acetosella. They would not eat docks. I certainly lost a good many 

 larva?, and my last specimens to emerge were small and of less vitality. 

 1 think the Albarracin district is the furthest north from which the 

 species has been recorded, and this abundance in quite the northern 

 half of Spain is, on the whole, unexpected. The following notes were 

 made at the time on young (and other) larvye of O. splendida : — July 

 12th, about f inch long. Black, white, and red. No side tufts. Tufts on 

 1st, 2nd, 8rd, 4th, and 8th abdominal segments white, no others. Hairs 

 on general surface rather long, black and white. Dorsal tubercles on 2nd 

 and 8rd thoracic and on 5th, 6th, 7th abdominal, as well as the supra- 

 spiracular large and red. Central glands on 6th and 7th abdominal, 

 tall, yellow. Other tubercles black, especially the dorsal ones on 1st, 

 2nd, 3rd, and 4th abdominal, where they contrast strongly with the 

 white tufts and the red tubercles. Skin black, with white marks in 

 several situations ; (1) In the incisions between the dorsal tubercles 

 and between the subdorsal tubercles (iii), (2) three or four round the 

 subdorsal tubercles (iii). (8) in the incision between the subspiracular 

 tubercles (iv ?), and (still in the incision) below these. The largest of 

 these specimens is 13mm. long (about h inch). 



As the specimen grows (two more moults to become full-grown) the 

 white skin-marks take quite a yellowish tone, except those just above 

 the supraspiracular tubercles (iii), which have a bluish tint. At the 

 first of these two moults these changes of colour may be noted, and the 

 dorsal tubercles of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 8th abdominal segments are no 

 longer visible, but support black hair-tufts. In the last skin, these black 

 hair-tufts become the large dorsal black brushes or pencils, having still 

 very conspicuously in their middles, longer pure white hairs, which stand 

 up above the black ones, and make a conspicuous contrast. These are 

 the same brushes that are so characteristic of all On/ina and DaxyeJiira 

 larva'. They appear first as a longitudinal row of white plumose hairs 

 on the dorsal line, naturally arising from the inner margins of the 

 dorsal tubercles. These white hairs are present in, at least, the three 

 last instars. The black hairs, that form the mass of the brushes on 

 the adult larva, arise subsequently, in the two last instars, or earlier 

 in a slight form, from the trapezoidal tubercles and around them. In 

 the fullgrown larva the white hairs, which form so brilliantly contrast- 

 ing a centre to the black tufts, and rise above the black ones, seem 

 more or less pressed out of a longitudinal alignment by the exuberance 

 of the black hairs, and sometimes run down the centre of the tufts as 

 several zigzags. There are no front or lateral tufts, and the tufts on 

 the 8th abdominal, which we are used, in other Orgyias, to see as of a 

 different structure from the dorsal ones {on piulibunda growing a flowing 



