252 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and Mr. Buckler's observations unhappily terminated. On 

 the 9th of this present April, through the kindness of Mr. 

 G. F. Mathew, of H.M.S. 'Britannia,' 1 received a sup- 

 ply of full-grown larvae feeding on the leaves of the dog- 

 violet (Viola canina), and have thus enjoyed the opportunity 

 of making a careful description. Mr. Mathew informs me 

 they are by no means easy to find ; they are seldom to be 

 seen on their food-plant, but generally on a dead leaf in its 

 immediate neighbourhood or a twig above it. They are 

 lively, and feed freely when the sun is on them ; but they 

 move slowly and feed sparingly when the weather is dull, 

 and at night they are motionless and abstain from food alto- 

 gether. The full-fed larva rolls in a ring when annoyed, but 

 very soon unrolls, and crawls with considerable rapidity to a 

 place of supposed safety : the head is almost exactly of the 

 same width as the 2nd segment, rough and bristly ; the face 

 is flattish and the crown notched : the body is obese, and 

 the segmental divisions are marked with considerable dis- 

 tinctness; the 2nd segment has two dorsal spines directed 

 forwards; between the 2nd and 3rd segment there is a lateral 

 spine directed outwards ; on the 3rd segment are two dorsal 

 spines nearly erect ; between the 3rd and 4th segments is a 

 lateral spine directed outwards ; on the 4th segment are two 

 dorsal spines nearly erect ; the 5th and following segments, as 

 far as the 12lh inclusive, have six spines each, two dorsal and 

 two on each side lateral ; the 13th segment has four spines 

 directed backwards ; all the spines are rough and uneven, 

 especially towards the tip, and are beset with strong bristles ; 

 there is no medio-dorsal series of spines, but the dorsal 

 spines constitute two series of eleven each. The head is 

 black, the two dorsal series of spines are gamboge-yellow at 

 the base and black at the tip ; the body is black, very 

 slightly sprinkled on the back with white dots, and having a 

 vague but broad pale stripe on each side, composed of irre- 

 gular bluish white markings, more or less closely crowded, and 

 each generally having a median black dot : this stripe is 

 often intersected by a slender sinuous black line : the legs 

 are black, the belly and claspers pitchy red. On the 17th of 

 April my specimens spun little silken pads on the grass, and 

 from these suspended themselves in the usual manner and 

 became pupae. The pupa is obese, the head obtusely eared, 



