46 LEPIDOI'TERA. 



Larva onisciform, and having each segment after the first 

 raised into a ridge, which is divided by the dorsal line and 

 also by an oblique line on each side. Bright green, with the 

 ridges yellow — especially so close to the dorsal line. Head 

 black ; ventral region pale green. When full fed the dorsal 

 line first, and then the whole body, becomes brown. It then 

 spins a girth attached to the under side of a leaf of its food 

 plant, usually the Wych elm {Ulmus nwntana), and there 

 assumes the pupa state. The Rev. H. H. Crewe says that by 

 climbing the trees he has obtained pujite almost as freely as 

 larvte. He also states that the egg is doubtless hatched in 

 autumn ; that the young larva hybernates ; and that he has 

 several times found it feeding upon the seeds in the spring 

 before the leaves had appeared. It is said at times to feed on 

 Ulmus campestris as well as Ulmus montana. Full fed in June. 



Pdpa brown, blunt, rounded, and partly covered with very 

 short stiff bristles. 



A lively, active, and somewhat erratic little species, 

 generally keeping to the trees, Wych elms especially but 

 occasionally oaks, flitting round them out of reach, and 

 sometimes, in the afternoon sunshine, walking about the 

 leaves, high up, opening and shutting its wings in a most 

 tantalising manner. At other times every specimen will 

 leave the trees and give itself up to the enjoyment of the 

 nectar of some extensive bed of flowers. Thus one observer 

 lost sight of the usual multitudes round the elms, and 

 discovered them in a mustard field ; another on the flowers 

 of a fine growth of thistles ; and the account by the late 

 Mr. J. F. Stephens of the myriads observed by him about the 

 bramble flowers in a lane at Ripley, Surrey, has become 

 historical. Oriyajnnn is also a favourite flower, and some- 

 times the insect is able to gratify its taste for sweets without 

 descending to the ground by the opportune discovery of 

 a blossoming lime. Mr. Fitch says that round Maldon, 

 Essex, it frequently settles on bushes in the hedgerows. 



