94 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



all the rest, except the r2th and 13th; and these bands are 

 rendered peculiarly vivid by contrast with the black ground 

 colour; these yellow bands are dorsal only, scarcely extend- 

 ing half-way down the side ; each of them is slightly inter- 

 rupted in the middle. After the last ecdysis these yellow 

 bands are entirely lost, and the hairs on the back are of a 

 golden brown colour : towards the end of September it spins, 

 among the heather, a very large cocoon, that seems enor- 

 mously disproportioned to the size of the moth : it is some- 

 times as much as three inches in length, and composed of a 

 sort of thin felt, in the manufacture of which the hairs of the 

 larva are largely employed ; it is of a dark brown colour and 

 semitransparent, so that the enclosed pupa may readily be 

 discerned occupying about a third of the interior ; the pupa 

 is dark brown, almost black, and extremely blunt and rounded 

 at both extremities ; every part of the pupa is densely clothed 

 with extremely short fine bristles : the moth appears at the 

 end of May or beginning of June. Great difficulty formerly 

 attended the rearing of this moth in confinement, until Mr. 

 Doubleday provided for the larvae a large open box, having a 

 heathy turf at the botton), and the top covered with wire 

 gauze. The box was left throughout the winter perfectly 

 exposed to all weathers, and the natural conditions thus 

 fulfilled. I am indebted to Mr. Blackmore for a supply of 

 this larva. — Edward Newman. 



Descriplion of the Larva of Metrocampa margaritata. — 

 The egg is laid in July, on Fagus sylvatica (beech), Betula 

 alba (birch), Cytisus scoparius (broom), and other trees and 

 shrubs ; it hybernales when small, and begins to feed again 

 in May as soon as the leaves of the beech are expanded. 

 When full-fed, which is about the third week in May, it rests 

 in a perfectly straight position, the ventral surface closely 

 appressed to the twigs. Head slightly wider than the 2nd 

 segment, porrecled when at rest, the face flat, the crown 

 obtusely bilobed, but without a conspicuous median notch : 

 body of nearly uniform width throughout, convex above, flat 

 beneath ; on each side is a manifest but interrupted skinfold, 

 including the spiracles, and beneath this is a fringe composed 

 of filauientous processes of the skin mixed with bristles; this 

 iringe is directed downwards, and appears to embrace the 

 twig on which the larva is resting; the 2nd, 3rd and 4th 



