THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 210 



their colour at first is canary-yellow, but in a few days they 

 acquire a browner hue, and before the emergence of the 

 larva they exhibit a darker band. The young larvae emerge 

 during August, generally between the 5th and 25th, and at 

 first eat very little and grow very slowly ; they moult twice 

 before the winter, and liybernate at the roots of grasses while 

 still very small ; in May they reascend the grass and feed 

 voraciously, and are full grown by midsummer. The larva, 

 when full-grown, rests in a perfectly straight position on a 

 blade or stalk of the food-plant, which is Triticum repens, 

 a favourite food of the genus ; but when annoyed it falls to 

 the ground, assuming a crescentic posture. Head sub- 

 globose, exserted, manifestly wider than the 2nd segment, 

 thickly covered with scabrous points, each of which emits a 

 minute bristle : body somewhat shuttle-shaped, the diminu- 

 tion towards the head being rather less than towards the anal 

 extremity ; the divisions of the segments are clearly defined, 

 and each segment is transversely wrinkled or divided into 

 sections, which are usuall}^, but not invariably, six in number ; 

 each of these sections is beset with scabrous points, and each 

 point emits a short and slender but stiff bristle ; the 13th 

 segment terminates in two scabrous conical points parallel to 

 each other and directed backwards. Colour of the head pale 

 pinkish brown ; of the body either glaucous-green or olive- 

 green, or, in some specimens, pale dingy brown ; in either 

 case it has five nearly equidistant longitudinal stripes ; a 

 narrow and dark medio-dorsal stripe extends from behind 

 the head to the sinus between the caudal points ; on 

 each side, half-way between this and the spiracles, is a 

 pale stripe, bordered above with a dark ground coloui', 

 which makes it appear more conspicuous ; and below 

 this, on a line with the spiracles, is a more distinct 

 and whiter stripe ; this also is bordered above with a dark 

 ground colour : feet and claspers concolorous with the body. 

 When about to change the larva attaches itself by the anal 

 claspers to a blade of grass, and in two days is transformed 

 into a pupa, suspended by minute anal cremastra3 from a 

 delicate silken carpeting, with which the larva had previously 

 and designedly covered a small space on the grass. Pupa 

 short and obese ; head dilated, flattened in front, the flat- 

 tened portion broadly eraarginatc on the crown, produced on 



