ON THE hARVM OF CERTAIN BRITISH MOTHS. 125 



Jan. 22nd, 1898. — Turned out the contents of the cage, and 

 found all the ashworthii larvae dead, dry, and shrivelled up. 



The following description, from my note-book, may also be of 

 interest. It represents the caterpillar in the final stage, and just 

 before pupation in the soil, between the middle and end of May. 

 Although I have sometimes noticed spring-collected larvse change 

 their skins once, still the description will stand good for all 

 collected for me after natural hybernation : — " Head shining, 

 reddish russet. Upper and under side of body dark slate-colour, 

 sometimes with a greenish tinge. Legs dull red. Spiracles 

 cream-colour, with reddish tint. On the back of each segment 

 are two large, velvety black, outward-bent, wedge-shaped marks. 

 "When the segment is extended in crawling, these marks are seen 

 to stretch down, or along, half the dorsal length of each segment ; 

 their outer boundaries describe a right angle, the inner boundary 

 is a curved outward-bent line. On the 2nd segment there are 

 no marks. On the 4th, at the points of the wedge-shaped 

 velvety black marks, are two well-defined but irregular spots 

 of the same velvet-black. The wedge-shaped marks become 

 gradually broader towards the 12th segment (inclusive), but on 

 the 13th or anal segment they are narrower and leaf-shaped." 

 The moth appears about the end of June 



Callimorpha hera — On Oct. 9th, 1897, I had two dozen young 

 larvse. The great point was to get them through the coming 

 winter, so I planted some ground-ivy and dandelion in a large 

 flower-pot. I then bent over crosswise a couple of willows, 

 covering all with gauze, which I fastened to the pot with string. 

 The ground-ivy ultimately died under the gauze, but the dande- 

 lion kept up a few green leaves to the last. Hybernation with 

 this species seems to be intermittent. My caterpillars thinned 

 off mysteriously. On Jan. 1st, 1898, the survivors wakened up, 

 but I was able to count only thirteen. As the ground-ivy was 

 dead and withered, I gave them a few dock leaves, which they 

 evidently partook of freely, returning to hybernation under their 

 shelter. On Jan. 23rd I counted fifteen ; they were all in the 

 second stage. On Feb. 27th I could only see eight. On March 

 20th I counted nine, and discovered a small beetle in the pot. 

 He was promptly ejected, and I blame him to this day for most 

 of the mysterious disappearances. Cannibalism, although I 

 never detected it, may account for the rest. On April 29th I had 

 eight left, and I put them into a cage with a couple of inches of 

 moss at the bottom. I now fed them upon groundsel, which 

 they preferred to all other plants. On June 9th they began to 

 spin up, but in every case among the moss. July 29th to Aug. 

 3rd (an uncommonly warm summer), seven fine moths emerged. 

 Two were of the variety lutescens (with yellow under wings). 

 This species is, I think, the most curious to deal with I ever met. 

 There was very little to observe about the larvae, as they kept 



