152 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



which at the birth of the caterpillar was bent forwards, and 

 after that stood almost straight up, is now bent backwards, 

 and is no longer forked, but ends in one sharp point. Full 

 grown, the caterpillar appears like fig. 6. Here I must 

 observe that all fir-tree arrow-tail caterpillars are not exactly 

 marked like this : on some the stripes run right through to 

 the reverse side of the body, whilst here they are shown 

 broken up into little patches; however, besides this, there is 

 no other difference in the markings. 



§ 3. — This insect, having completed its life as caterpillar, 

 and being now about to undergo its first transformation, or 

 become a pupa, creeps into the ground, and there makes this 

 change, in the same way as I have already described this 

 operation in the description of other arrow-tails. As pupa, it 

 appears in the shape, size and colour of fig. 7, having this 

 remarkable peculiarity, that the sheath of the sucker of the 

 moth, which dwells in the pupa, is so'mewhat separated from 

 the body, and scarcely stuck fast to it by the thick end, there 

 being consequently a small opening between them. This is 

 also the. case with the pupoe of the "liguster" and bindweed 

 arrow-tail moth, but not with others. The fir-tree arrow-tail 

 pupae remain all winter laid in the ground, and the moths 

 come out late in the following summer. This second change 

 occurs also in all points like that of other moths, so I need 

 not make any further remark about it here. 



§ 4. — Our fir-tree arrow-tail moth now having left the 

 pupal membrane, and its wings having obtained their proper 

 stiffness, appears, when at rest, like fig. 8, that being a female, 

 which by its thicker abdomen alone is sufficiently distinguish- 

 able from the male, this latter being seen flying at fig. 9. The 

 antennae differ very little in the sexes, but those of the 

 male are a little thicker and rather more downy. With regard 

 to the marking of this insect, it seems at first sight to be 

 always alike, but if one looks at it a little closer one finds 

 here and there a little difference : the ground colour, namely, 

 is not the same exactly in all; a property, which this sort has 

 in common with by far most other sorts. 



§ 5. — With regard to our new discovery about the impreg- 

 nation of eggs of some moths with foreign eggs, of which I 

 made mention in the beginning, 1 have not yet found any- 

 thing like it in any describer of insects ; consequently this 



