24 Records of the Indian Museum. [Voi,. XVT, 



cage and it was not long before it commenced devouring it. 

 Inside the "dug-out" were pieces of its cast skin, and on the 

 side, at the furthest end, two of the largest dorsal plates were 

 stuck hard up against it On the 9th there were no snails 

 left from the supply put into the cages on the 6th. On the 

 loth some large specimens of Achatina were put into the cages. 

 These larvae seemed to prefer the larger snails, but if they 

 were unable to overcome these, they readily devoured the smaller 

 ones. At about 9 p.m. on the roth the Angul larva was observed 

 digging a hole in the soft earth at the bottom of its cage. This 

 was accomplished by small quantities of earth being carried 

 between the mandibles and deposited some distance away from the 

 hole. On the first night the hole was not completed, only a slight 

 depression having been made in which the larva passed the night 

 and where I found it on the morning of the nth. After sunset on 

 the nth both larvae walked about their cages, presumably looking 

 for food. The Angul larva did not devour any snails, but tried either 

 to get under a very large Achatina or to get hold of its body but 

 the snail was too tough to allow the larva to fix its jaws in its 

 body. The earth at the bottom of the cages appeared very 

 dry, so I poured some water on it and as soon as the larvae found 

 everything around them in a moist condition, they each left 

 off what it was doing. The Angul larva's attempts having proved 

 unsuccessful, it gave up attacking the large Achatina and be- 

 took itself to its pit or depression where, after cleaning its 

 body, it retired for the night by 9.30 p.m. The Rambha larva 

 took advantage of the water in its cage and began to clean itself. 

 On the I2th this latter larva had managed to overcome a 

 large Achatina, which it devoured. During the night the Angul 

 larva had dug itself well under the soft earth. This was done in 

 precisely the same manner in which the Rambha larva had 

 done preparatory to moulting. Nothing worthy of note took place 

 from the 13th to the 20th, the Rambha larva continued to 

 eat and the Angul larva remained hidden underground. On 

 the 2ist morning I made a small opening on the top of the •' dug- 

 out " in which the Angul larva was, and I saw it still in its 

 larval state. I covered up this opening with a tin cover so as to 

 shut out all light. At 7.30 p.m. I uncovered the opening and 

 found that the Angul larva had cast its larval skin and the 

 creature now appeared almost milk white, the only visible 

 black spots being the stigmata situated on the segment containing 

 the luminous organs. The insect was now very sluggish and 

 though handled a good deal with a tea-spoon, in order to 

 secure the cast skin intact, it did not attempt to protrude its head 

 or even move its legs. It glowed very brightly when touched. 

 This was the pupal stage. On the 22nd the pupa was in the same 

 state and its glow was now continuous. It remained so till 

 the 27th when it cast its pupal skin between 3 and 4 p.m. 

 The pupal skin is quite different to the last larval skin. The 

 last larval skin resembles the larva exactly, both in texture 



