BOARMID^E—BOARMIA. I97 



pattern, and different individuals vary in the patches of 

 paler colouring, some having broad patches of cream-colour 

 in the spiracular region of the fifth and tenth segments ; the 

 sixth sometimes tinged with rust colour ; the dorsal line 

 appears as a paler dash on the front of each segment and a 

 spot at the back ; similar pale spots are sometimes seen 

 where the sub-dorsal line should be, on the sixth and 

 seventh segments ; head brown ; spiracles dirty white, out- 

 lined with black. 



The newly-hatched larva is without humps, pale green 

 with a broad dark brown lateral stripe, and the head pale 

 reddish-brown. After the first moult a hump appears on the 

 sixth segment, and the ground colour is pale ochreous. After 

 this it gets darker in colour, the head becomes notched, and 

 the other prominences appear. 



The whole appearance of the well-grown larva, both in 

 outline and colour, is extremely suggestive of an oak twig, 

 and it preserves this resemblance under one or two changes 

 of attitude, sometimes standing stiffly out, with the body in a 

 straight line up to the eighth segment, then the seventh bent 

 slightly upwards from this, and then from the sixth to the 

 head again in one line, the head and thoracic segments more 

 or less bunched together ; sometimes standing off at a wider 

 angle from a twig, and then with the whole front of the body 

 from the sixth to the head inclined, in a stiff line, towards 

 the twig again ; in this position it looks like what had been 

 a forked twig, with one of the forks broken off ; in walking 

 its humps lose much of their prominence and it then looks 

 much like other stout Geometers. (Rev. J. Hellins.) 



August till April or May on oak ; hybernating when about 

 one-third grown, upon the trees, slightly protected by silken 

 threads attached to the twigs ; and in spring, before the 

 leaves unfold, gnawing the bark of the young shoots and the 

 buds. At this time it has been induced, by Mr. Woodforde, 

 to eat hawthorn buds ; abroad it is said to feed also on 

 apple. 



