54; [August, 



though of much greater size than the prothorax alone would account 

 for. On the posterior slope of this protuberance may be seen the 

 thoracic square, while in front the head seems bent down and in 

 towards the sternum. Pressure is thus brought to bear on this region 

 of the shell. The abdomen appears attenuated posteriorly, leaving 

 empty spaces between it and the shell, as if to make up for the 

 increased thickness in the thoracic region. The vermicular movements 

 continue ; the anal pro-leg, at first dorsally recurved, moves forward 

 in the shell. A process of the prothorax (which is somewhat more 

 translucent than the other segments of the thorax) is protruded 

 through the opening. It is wedge-shaped, the pro thoracic spiracle at 

 its posterior margin — the dorsum broadened, and the prosternum 

 running out in the thin edge of the wedge. In front of it, the larva 

 is nipped in, as it were, at the neck, abruptly to the head, whilst 

 behind, the meso- and metathorax slope off towards the abdomen more 

 gradually. After awhile the head is drawn out, vertex first. The 

 hairs on the head point forwards, those on the other segments back- 

 wards, and so oppose a return. Head and shoulders out, it seems to 

 rest awhile. The remainder of the body follows more easily, taking 

 15 or 20 minutes ; but the tail of the larva remains much longer 

 within the now somewhat rounded opening in the clear transparent 

 shell. 



The hatching having begun in one or two, others follow, and not 

 in the order in which they were laid, after a longer or shorter interval ; 

 but it may be several hours before all are hatched out, although laid 

 within half an hour or a little more. And this extension of the time 

 for a whole batch is still further increased in the successive following 

 metamorphoses. In the meantime, the first hatched larvse will often 

 attack and destroy the eggs still unhatched, even when not compelled 

 thereto by want of other food. In nearly every batch there will be 

 found a few "residual" eggs — undeveloped or arrested — 2 or 3 in 

 general, or half a dozen. Sometimes many more, especially in the 

 batches first laid by a $ , and towards the end of her career, when, in 

 the latter case, there will generally be found a number of eggs, ab- 

 normal in shape and size, smaller and sometimes spherical — all of 

 which never come to anything. 



The larva feeds according to the season and the weather, from 12 

 to 18 days, during which time it moults twice, so dividing the period 

 into three pretty equal stages. After it is fed up it is quiescent for 

 2 or 3 days before pupation. At the time of the first moult it is from 

 ^2 to 2j mm. long ; and 4 to 4-| mm. when it undergoes the second 



