162 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIFE-HISTORY OF 

 TRIGONOPHORA FLAMMEA. 



By Fbancis C. Woodb ridge. 



In October of last year I was fortunate enough to obtain a 

 batch of eggs of Trigonophora fiammca {empyrea), and although I 

 have to record a failure this time, perhaps some of your 

 entomological readers may nevertheless be interested in knowing 

 my experiences as far as they go. 



The ova were deposited about the middle of October, and 

 were of a conical shape flattened at the base ; the ground colour 

 was buff, and they had a dark-brown spot at the apex and a ring 

 of the same hue running around them half-way between the apex 

 and the base. Shortly before hatching out, which happened on 

 the 8th, 9th, and 10th December, the ova changed colour and 

 became grey all over. 



Though I supplied the young larvae with food of various 

 descriptions, they seemed to prefer the Raminculm hidbosus, and 

 in fact would touch nothing else. When the young larvae first 

 emerge from the ova they are of a dark shade of green and 

 hairy, or rather, I should say, fluffy. When disturbed they 

 suspend themselves on silken threads from the leaves on which 

 they happen to be feeding. They were about one sixteenth of an 

 inch in length, and the prolegs, not being perfect, humped up 

 somewhat after the style of a Geometer when moving about. 



On the 20th December the larvae had passed their first moult, 

 and were about a quarter of an inch in length, and of a shining 

 dark green, but they had lost their fluffy appearance, being 

 covered with short hairs, and were more or less speckled with 

 black. 



Here, however, my first misfortune overtook me, for having 

 neglected when changing their food to insert a piece of paper 

 between the top of the jam-pot, which formed their abode, and 

 the glass which covered it, all the larvaB but three during the 

 night effected their escape. 



On the 1st February the three survivors again moulted, and 

 appeared in a bright green costume with a whitish longitudinal 

 stripe on each side, running along just beneath the spiracles, the 

 ground colour being of lighter shade btluw these lines, and the 



