46 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



leltuce-leaf, if provided by their care-taker, and then make 

 little circular holes in those leaves, at first not much bigger 

 than shot-holes. Viewed from the upper side of the leaf 

 these holes have a very strange appearance: the body of the 

 caterpillar is completely concealed Ijy the leaf, while the 

 head, just visible through the shot-hole, seems to be making 

 mouths at you from the other side, after the manner of a 

 clown grinning through a horse-collar ; the incessant move- 

 ment of the caterpillar's jaws, as seen through a pocket-lens, 

 tends to make the resemblance more complete. 



In August these caterpillars generally leave off eating, and 

 prepare for their winter's rest, retiring towards the roots of 

 the herbage, and there ren)aining until April, when they feel 

 the calls of hunger, again come abroad, and feed greedily. 

 About the middle of May I have found them full fed, and 

 building their cocoons, in which to undergo the transforma- 

 tion to a chrysalis. The cocoon is rather a curious structure : 

 it is composed of loosely-felted silk, abundantly interspersed 

 with the red hairs which covered the body of the caterpillar, 

 and which seem to have been shed for this especial service ; 

 the shape of the cocoon is something like a boat turned 

 upside down ; the chrysalis is very dumpy, and quite black. 

 Before assuming this state the caterpillar emits a quantity of 

 greenish fluid, as stated by Mr. Eccles. This leaves a green 

 stain on the cloth, very similar to that on the piece of news- 

 paper in which Mr, Eccles had imprisoned them. I am 

 unable to decide whether this green fluid is ejected from the 

 mouth or the anus ; 1 think probably the latter, as such a 

 discharge seems usually to follow the last excrementilious 

 matter prior to the change to a pupa. The samples of injured 

 cloth are very curious : they exhibit little holes of no ])articular 

 form, but apparently cut by the mandibles of a caterpillar; 

 there is, however, no single aperture large enough for the 

 larva to have passed through: but I do not think this a 

 difficulty of any moment, for the injury remains, and is 

 unquestionably to be attributed to the larva), whether they 

 were detected occupying the holes, or utilising them as a 

 means of escape. One thing seems perfectly clear, they 

 could not have been made by tlie moths on their emergence 

 from the pupa3 ; the solvent then used, of whatever nature, 

 would not produce the appearance of having been gnawed, 



