138 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



clothed with radiating hairs, and every other part of the body 

 is clothed with soft downy hairs. Colour of the head pur- 

 plish black : body purple opaque black ; dorsal surface vel- 

 vety black, slightly interspersed with purple-black, and 

 adorned with a median series of brilliant orange transverse 

 markings, each of which is pointed anteriorly and truncated 

 posteriorly ; in iact these markings constitute so many 

 tolerably distinct triangles, with very broad bases, and each 

 triangle is divided near its base by a slender transverse black 

 line : the 2nd and 12th segments differ from the rest in 

 having a transverse band of the same rich colour instead of 

 a triangle : the sides and ventral surface are purplish opaque 

 black, and the legs and claspers are nearly of the same co- 

 lour ; the soft hairs which clothe every part of the body are 

 gray, but so nearly colourless, and so delicately slender, that 

 they do not in any manner obscure the markings. In April 

 this larva begins to feed again, and in June it undergoes its 

 final moult, having then completed the first year of its exist- 

 ence : after the last moult the dorsal triangles entirely disap- 

 pear, and an obscure medio-dorsal stripe, caused by the 

 convergence of pale hairs, makes its appearance, partially 

 obscuring the velvety black of the back, vi'hich, however, 

 shows itself in transverse bands when the larva crawls, or rolls 

 in a ring : the 2nd segment has a small spot, on each side, 

 of mixed orange-brown and white ; the 3rd and 4th segments 

 have each a lateral transversely oblong spot, larger, but of 

 the same colours ; and the remaining segments, the 5th to 

 the 12th inclusive, have each a portion of an interrupted lateral 

 stripe, of the same two colours, orange-brown and white ; in 

 other respects the sides and ventral surface retain the same 

 purplish hue they possessed in the younger stage. The larva 

 is full-fed in August, and then again retires towards the roots 

 of the ling, and spins a dark brown, oblong, tough cocoon, 

 which it attaches to the stems and tvvigs of heather, ling, 

 sedges, and other kinds of herbage which constitute the 

 covering of the waste grounds where this species occurs ; 

 and are to be found plentifully by separating the herbage 

 down to the very roots : within this cocoon it changes to a 

 short, obese, dark brown pupa, in which state it continues 

 throughout the winter, and until the following May or June, 

 when the insect, having completed the second year of its 



