BOARMID.E—BOARMIA. 21 1 



side by a thin line of brown freckles ; the front pairs of raised 

 dots are black on the fifth to ninth segments, and the hinder 

 pairs, though pale in part, are involved in a strong black 

 mark which, flowing from them, darkens parts of both ad- 

 jacent lines to the segmental division ; spiracles strongly- 

 outlined with black ; in front of each of them is a short line 

 of a few black freckles ; lines occur on the undersurface, but 

 are very faint ; each raised dot emits a fine short bristly 

 hair, and these hairs are rather numerous on the head and 

 the anal segments and prolegs. 



On first emerging from the egg very slender, head ochreous- 

 green, dorsal stripe very pale green, subdorsal stripes blackish- 

 olive, spiracular stripes whitish-green, and undersurface dark 

 olive-green ; in a few days the colour of the stripes is browner, 

 and in the middle of the dorsal stripe appears a fine dark 

 green line ; at a fortnight old the stripes begin to divide into 

 fine lines ; when half grown it is light brown, having dark 

 lines with paler edges, and the adult markings begin to 

 appear. (Condensed from Mr. Buckler's description.) 



August till June, hybernating when about half grown. 

 On yew [Taxus haccata), spruce, Scotch fir, silver fir, birch, 

 whortleberry, oak, and beech. Yew appears to be its 

 favourite food, but where this is absent, and the larva is 

 found on some species of fir, it shows a singular willingness, 

 in confinement, to forsake that food for birch — yet I know of 

 no instance of its having been found upon birch at large ! 



Pupa about three quarters of an inch in length, stoutest 

 across the endsof the wing covers, whence it tapers gradually 

 to the end of the abdomen ; this is furnished with a tapering 

 projection separating near the end into two short fine points; 

 surface of the thorax and wing-covers smooth ; abdominal 

 rings very finely punctate, their divisions smooth, and of a 

 dull violet-brown colour ; all the other surface dark brown 

 and glossy ; apparently it makes no appreciable cocoon, and 

 a few days before the moth is disclosed the pupa makes its 



