1872.] 115 



Feeds inside the buds and young shoots of spruce fir. Hatched July 18th. 

 Full-fed the last -week in August. 



I am indebted to the kindness of ilr. Hellins, of Exeter, for the opportunity of 

 seeing and describing this hitherto, I believe, undescribed larva. Mr. K. reai'cd it 

 from the egg. 



Mr. Buckler has succeeded in taking its portrait. — -H. Haepur-Crewe, The 

 Kectory, Drayton-Beauchamp, Tring : Septcmler 2nd, 1872. 



Natural History of Acid alia degeneraria. — On the 8th of August, 1871, 1 had the 

 pleasure of receiving from Mr. Q-eorge Harding, of Bristol, the welcome gift of eight 

 young larvae of this species, hatched on the 29th July from eggs laid loose in a box, 

 on the 18th, by a much worn, captured female. 



Mr. Harding also informed me that the eggs were pink in coloiir, and became 

 darker and more dingy just before hatching, and that the newly -hatched lai-vse 

 differed in no respect but that of size from their appearance when consigned to me, 

 having fed from the first on Polygonum aviculare. At this time, being ten days old, 

 they were about three lines long, slender, and of a greenish-brown colour, and, when 

 at rest, were generally in a looped position, but were remarkably timid, tucking tlieir 

 heads under and curling up into a close coil at the least alarm, and persistently 

 remaining in this posture for a long time ; their voluntary movements were very 

 slow and measured. 



By the middle of September they had changed their colouring to a rich cinnamon- 

 brown above, and blackish beneath ; on a close sciiitiny for details at this time, they 

 presented exactly the same design as hereafter described in the adult state ; they 

 now began to be lethargic, and to show symptoms of hibernating, but, as the Poly- 

 gonum was still procurable, I often disturbed them with fresh food to incite them to 

 eat, in the hope of getting one or two to feed up before winter ; this at one time 

 seemed probable, though with a change of colder weather they baffled my design by 

 ceasing to feed and insisting on sleep. 



In this state, and reduced to six in number, on October the 29th, they were 

 tratisferred to a pot with growing plants of Dandelion, Veronica j^olita, and Plantago 

 lanceolata, covered with coarse muslin and kept in a window seat facing west, in a 

 room without fire ; by this date, they had grown to eight lines in length, and were 

 rather darker than before. 



By the middle of February, 1872, I observed the plants in a dying condition, 

 and a few indications of moidd genei-ating amongst the withered leaves, which, 

 however, had not attacked the larvae, resting as they were on the sides of the pot. 

 I now took them out, and placed them in a new abode ; and, the weather soon after 

 being severe, I put them in another room with a fire, in order to try them with 

 bramble, and soon had the pleasure of seeing them nibble at it, and also at CerasHum 

 and Veronica, though the bramble seemed to be preferred : satisfied with this experi- 

 ment, I then restored them to their former colder quarters, where they did very 

 well, feeding a little from time to time, whenever the severity of the weather relaxed 

 a little, and, by March 7th, two of them had quite outstripped their companions 

 in growth, and by the 13th had attained apparently their full size, still, however, 

 feeding a little untd April, on the loth of which month they assumed the pupa 

 state ; another followed their example on the 26th, one on May 8th, one more on 

 the 26th, the last on June 30th : the four carhcst appeared in the imago state from 

 Jime 14th to 21th, and a fifth moth appeared on the 11th of July. 



