X78 PLUJi. 



The wings of the male moth are ample, the fore wings 

 rather of a dingy brown colour, and marked with various 

 transverse darker or lighter bands or lines, as figured at 

 p. 177 ; the hinder wings paler, with a transverse zigzag line. 



The Plum twigs which were sent me were quite small (none 

 of them as much as a quarter of an inch across), and the 

 bands of eggs which were then laid (or being laid) varied from 

 about a quarter to half an inch in breadth at the widest part, 

 but did not always quite encircle the stem. They were de- 

 posited with beautiful regularity, and showed to the naked eye 

 as if laid in almost precisely parallel rows along the twig, and 

 were embedded in down supplied by the parent moth from the 

 pencil at the end of her tail. In the largest band I counted 

 twenty-nine rows, and as each of these rows (as nearly as I 

 could count or estimate) was composed of upwards of eighteen 

 of the bright shining eggs, the whole number in this ring 

 would be well over five hundred ; but the size is so variable 

 that in many cases the number in each ring or patch would 

 be much fewer. 



In the observations of eggs and caterpillars of this species, 

 given by Mr. G. T. Porritt,* he mentions that of eggs which 

 he received on April 3rd, 1872, some hatched on the journey, 

 and the remainder hatched immediately. The larvfe from 

 these grew rapidly on hawthorn, and by the middle of May 

 were going down, and by the end all the caterpillars had gone 

 down. From these, at date of writing (March 11th, 1873), 

 the moths were emerging, nineteen males preceding the 

 appearance of the first female. 



The full-grown caterpillar is described by Mr. Porritt as 

 "Length about an inch, slender, cylindrical, and of uniform 

 width throughout ; head globular, slightly broader than the 

 second segment ; skin soft and smooth. (5^round colour bright 

 green, strongly tinged with yellow ; head uniformly green ; a 

 dark green line very narrowly edged with grey forms the 

 dorsal stripe ; the subdorsal and spiracular lines are greyish 

 white, and between the subdorsal and spiracular lines is a very 

 fine pale grey line. The segmental divisions are yellow, and 

 the spiracles black. Ventral surface uniformly bright green, 

 with the segmental divisions yellow." — (G. T. ]?.) 



These caterpillars, like those of the Winter Moth and 

 Mottled Umber Moths, are "loopers," that is, walk in an up- 

 right loop-form consequently on the characteristic number of 

 sucker-feet (beneath the body) being only one pair instead of 

 four pairs, as described at p. 161, and figured p. 179. But in 

 observations by the Eev. J. J. Hellins, in paper above referred 



* ' LarvfB of British Butterflies and Moths.' Vol. vii. Geometnr, part i. 

 p. 157. Ray Society. 



