TRIFID^E. 59 



edged above with black; spiracles light red; legs bone- 

 colour; prolegsand undersurface pale greenish-grey. (De- 

 scribed from larva) furnished by Mr. Robert Adkin for that 

 purpose.) A form figured by Mr. W. Buckler has the dorsal 

 surface green, with broad darker green subdorsal stripes 

 which are dotted with white, and a slender purple spiracular 

 stripe edged beneath with yellow. Another is described by 

 Mr. G. T. Bethune Baker : " Ground colour apple-green with 

 the back darker, and a pale green central stripe, on both 

 sides of which is a row of small white spots, finely encircled 

 with black, from the third to the twelfth segment inclusive, 

 each row consisting of three spots triangularly disposed on 

 every segment ; spiracular stripe white, edged above by a 

 black line; spiracles scarlet; legs yellow; prologs tipped 

 with pinkish-buff; head yellowish." In every variety the 

 beauty of this larva is quite remarkable. 



May to July on dock, sorrel, persicaria, yellow flag, various 

 sedges, and other marsh or low-growing plants. 



Pupa elongated, the thoracic portion very cylindrical ; eye 

 and antenna cases full and rounded; wing-covers more de- 

 pressed; abdominal segments very strongly rounded and 

 with deep divisions; anal segment bluntly and suddenly 

 rounded off below, but its dorsal portion produced into a 

 rounded and greatly pitted cremaster which, where joined to 

 the dorsal portion of the segment, is hollowed out like a 

 shell, and which bears at its tip two slender black points 

 or spikes, and outside these two bristles ; whole surface glossy 

 deep red-brown. In a brittle cocoon of earth beneath the 

 surface of the ground. 



The moth doubtless hides during the day among moss, 

 dead leaves, or herbage, upon the ground. It has even been 

 found under a stone on the top of a mountain 2500 feet high. 

 Its form when at rest is so wonderfully like a bit of dead 

 stick, that even when several have been reared in a flower- 

 pot I have looked steadily at them without realising that 



