THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 77 



lengthy life-histovy without saying that for important parti- 

 culars, as well as the larvae and pnpge I have so carefully ob- 

 served, I am indebted to my kind friends Mr. Doubleday 

 and Mr. Buckler. — Edzvard Neivman. 



Descripiion of the Larva of Argynnis PapJtla (Silver- 

 wash Fritillary). — The egg is laid towards the end of July, 

 and sometimes as late as the beginning of August, on dead 

 leaves, moss, or the living leaves of Viola canina (dog violet) 

 and Viola odorata (sweet violet) : the female, when engaged 

 in the duty of oviposition, seeks out the shaded places under 

 the brush-wood, while the inale may be seen sunning him- 

 self and displaying his brilliantly fulvous wings as he rests 

 on the blossoms of the bramble, from which he extracts his 

 favourite food : the young larva, which is hatched in about 

 fourieen days, appears quite black at first, but very soon ex- 

 hibits the markings which are its characteristics when full- 

 grown ; indeed the fulvous stripe-like markings on both back 

 and side are perhaps more strongly pronounced at this early 

 period than subsequently when arrived at its full size. In 

 September it descends towards the roots of the herbage, and 

 there, as near as possible to the surface of the ground, spins 

 a loose covering, apparently more for the sake of affording a 

 sure hold for the claspers than for protection ; and in this 

 situation it passes the winter months, emerging and crawling 

 up the petioles of its lowly food-plants as soon as the new 

 leaves have made their appearance in the spring. It appears 

 to be full-fed during the third and fourth weeks in May ; at 

 that period, if disturbed, it falls immediately from its food- 

 plant, bending its head and leg-bearing segments under its 

 body until they come in contact with its ventral claspers ; 

 but the terminal sei^ments remain straight, and are not gene- 

 rally incurved. The head is somewhat scabrous, rather nar- 

 rower than the 2nd segment, and most decidedlj' narrower 

 than those which follow ; the body is of nearly uniform sub- 

 stance, but slightly attenuated towards either extremity, 

 having the incisions of the segments deeply and clearly 

 marked : there are three spines on each side of each 

 segment ; each arises from a bulbous base, and is narrowed 

 to a point at the distal extremity, emitting throughout its 

 length a number of ascending bristles ; two of these spines 

 on the 2nd segment are longer and somewhat move slender 



