104 LEPIDOPTERA. 



On the wing from the end of May to July and as a scarcer 

 second generation at the end of August and beginning of 

 September. 



Larva stout, anterior segments regularly smaller, but not 

 conspicuously so ; whole body sprinkled with fine short 

 bristles ; head small, yellow-green ; general colour bright 

 green or grass-green ; dorsal line darker green enclosed 

 between several parallel slender white longitudinal lines ; 

 subdorsal line faintly yellowish ; spiracular stripe cloudy- 

 white ; on the sides are three rows of small white dots ; 

 spiracles also white ; legs and prolegs green. When very 

 young grey-black with white dots and slender white spiracu- 

 lar lines, as it grows older dark bluish-green abundantly 

 dotted either with black or white. When half-grown more 

 olive-green, with black head and legs, an obscure pale 

 spiracular line, and the raised dots still as before; at the 

 last moult the black dots disappear. 



May and June and as a partial second brood in July and 

 August; on Aconitum napellus (Monkshood),^, lycoctonum, 

 various species of Delphinium (Larkspur), and Trollius 

 europceus (Globe-flower); feeding on the blossoms as well 

 as the leaves. Upon this point Mr. H. F. de Laune has 

 kindly furnished some information : " I found several in 

 April feeding in the young flower-buds of monkshood. 

 They carefully spin all round the flowers and feed upon 

 them until either the last moult or the last but one, when 

 they go to feed on the leaves. These are nibbled in the 

 middle until they droop, the larvas feeding all the while on 

 the undersides. The young larvae in the flowers are easy to 

 find ; but when feeding upon the leaves they are much more 

 difficult, owing to their being of exactly the colour of the 

 food-plant. They are very easy to rear in captivity." In 

 France it is reported to have been found feeding also on 

 sunflower, Jerusalem artichoke, burdock, cucumber, and a 

 variety of other plants. 



