NYMPHALID.K. 193 



hairs black ; body intense velvety black, witb belts of pure 

 wbite dots in the incisions between the segments, hairs 

 intensely black ; legs pitchy black ; claspers dull red. 



On Plantago lanccolata (narrow-leaved or ribwort plantain). 



The eggs are laid in batches on the plantain, and are 

 hatched in August ; the larvje unite in spinning a web very 

 compact and tent-like, forming a weatherproof domicile, in 

 which they hybernate. (Newman.) 



Mr. Newman's description agrees fairly well with Buckler's 

 figure, except that in tlie latter the legs are red, and the red 

 head has two white stripes ; the white dots, moreover, are 

 scattered abundantly over the body, and not confined to the 

 incisions of the segments. 



August and September, and, after hybernation, in April 

 and May. 



Pupa short and thick, with blunt, keel-shaped projections 

 in front, and on the back of the thorax ; back of the abdomen 

 much rounded, with two or three slight dorsal points. Purplish 

 brown, or dark grey with a lilac or buff tinge, delicately 

 covered with blackish lines; wing-sheaths striped with darker 

 brown ; their edges and the antenna-sheaths white dotted with 

 brown ; lateral stripes purplish. 



The Eev. J. F. Dawson, writing to the Zoologist in 1844 of 

 the great colony of this species on the Undercliff, near 

 Ventnor, Isle of Wight, says of the larvte that, being hatched 

 in August, they " pass the winter in societies, under a kind 

 of tent formed by a compact web, brought round and over 

 the stems of grasses. I have found several of these societies 

 on August 27th, the individuals which composed them being 

 about a quarter of an inch long, rolled up like little balls. 

 All these societies occurred at the base of the declivity, where 

 the herbage grows most luxuriantly, and when the caterpillars 

 have attained sufficient strength in the spring, they ascend to 

 the higher parts of the steep, and feed, and undergo their 

 transformations." The pujoje were found suspended to the 



N 



