•niK TKIliK I'AMPIlII.llH. 1549 



The raff2;o(l filamentous ajipcndafjc-i, wliicli arc doubtless secreted hy the 

 tuhtdar l)ristk's common to the II('sii>eri(lao tliroiigh lite, have, in tlie figure 

 given 1)}" Moore, all the appearance of jagged spines and most probably 

 secure for the caterpillar that protection which has induced an open habit 

 of life. In diminutive keeping with this, the caterpillar of our own Ambly- 

 scirtes vialis, which of all our skippers known tome has the most palpable 

 coating of extraneous matter, resembling the flocculent secretions of the 

 Coceidac, and which is renewed early after each moult, also lives a 

 ])artialiy open life, extending itself quietly at full length along the grass 

 blades outside its nest for a considerable part of its later life. Exactly 

 the same habit is found, according to Fletcher, in Paniphila mandan. 

 This subject is one that should receive close attention. 



In the change to chrysalis, the same nest that has served the mature 

 larva or one entirely similar is made, only closed more tightly by a sieve- 

 like silken mesh at all open ))laccs, and here the change takes place in a 

 vertical position. In the few instances when I have seen it, I have been unable 

 to make so careful an examination as is needed, but I have not been able 

 to discover any transverse thoracic loop, nor, I believe, does any writer 

 mention one. The attachment at the tail is likewise slight and apparently 

 aided by a very feeble pad of silk specially spun for the purpose, which 

 does not appear to take any definite shape. But I am not aware that any 

 other observer has paid particular attention to this point, and my own 

 opportunities liavc been too slight and unsatisfactory to be at all decisive. 



Characteristics of the early stages. To the naked eye the eggs are 

 invariably smooth, but in reality are furnished with excessively fine raised 

 lines, dividing the surface into polygonal cells; very rarely these ai-e absent, 

 and in their place appears a faint, sometimes nearly imperceptible, vertical 

 ribbing. They are hemispherical in shape and differ markedly from the 

 higher tribe in the almost invariable absence of vertical ribs, and total want 

 of cross lines. 



The caterpillars at birth have a plump, fat, cylindrical body, with a 

 massive globose head of disproportionate size and a body provided with 

 rows of short, tubular, apically expanding bristles, besides some veiy long, 

 recurved pointed bristles on the last segment. The mature caterpillars 

 have a pyramidal head, not very large in proportion to the body except for 

 the strangled neck, a long and slender body tapering at each end and 

 studded profusely with minute pajiillae supporting pile. They are some- 

 times longitudinally, very rarely transversely striped, but usually nearly 

 uniform. 



The chr}-salids are slender and elongated, the front often with a projecting 

 slender point or horn, the tongue case extending free, sometimes to a great 

 distance, beyond the tip of the wings. 



One species, closely allied to an American group, has been found fossil 

 in the tcrtiarics of Aix, France. 



