34 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and spotted with darker tints of the same : body dingy 

 brown ; 3rd segment with a transverse elevated black 

 band, which contains eight white dots; 4lh segment with 

 a conspicuous black dot on each side ; on every segment 

 from the 4lh to the lllh, both inclusive, is a median dark 

 mark, which divides at each extremity, the anterior divisions 

 divaricating slightly and becoming lost as they gradually 

 merge' in the ground colour ; tl)e posterior division divari- 

 cating decidedly and abruptly, and terminating at the exterior 

 posterior margin of the segment ; each pair of divisions en- 

 closes a paler and somewliat triangular space, and these tri- 

 angles meet base to base at the junction of the segments, 

 thus forming a series of medio-dorsal lozenge-shaped mark- 

 ings, eight in number; in each dark marking are four white 

 dots, and in each lozenge is a median longitudinal black and 

 slightly waved line ; the sides are delicately varied with dif- 

 ferent shades of sepia-brown, and every segment has a i'ew 

 scattered hairs. The other variety is green, and exhibits 

 traces, more or less distinct, of the markings 1 have de- 

 scribed. Full-fed about the middle of June, when it spins a 

 slight web between two leaves of the food-plant, and therein 

 changes to a pupa. The moth appears in July. This de- 

 scription of the larva is taken from a specimen lent me by 

 Mr. Wright, and carefully compared with an exquisitely 

 beautiful drawing by Mr. Buckler. — Edward Newniaa. 



Description of the Larva of Platypieryx nnytiicnla. — 

 This species is supposed to be double-brooded, a subject on 

 which I am not qualified to express an opinion ; all that I 

 can assert positively is that the larva occurs abundantly iu 

 August and Sepleniber, and the moth in May, and that the 

 May moths emerge from the August larvae is beyond a ques- 

 tion, but the point to be settled is whether there is an entire 

 round of existence — egg, larva, pupa and imago — between 

 May and August, which is a view of the case taken by most 

 Lepidopterists. The egg is laid on the leaf of Fagus sylva- 

 tica (beech), especially on those stunted or pollard trees 

 \\l)ich so abound in Epjiing Forest. When full-fed, in which 

 state it is ibund at the end of August and throughout Sep- 

 tember, the larva rests in a nearly straight position, but with 

 both extremities slightly raised, and not touching the object 

 on which it rests; when roughly toJiched or jerked off' with 

 the beating-stick, it very frequently hangs by a thread, and, 



