THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 85 



and on each side is a parallel series of blackish markings, 

 less conspicuous than the medio-dorsal series. 



Hera is very constant in the disposition and form of its 

 markings, not totally without variation, but constant as 

 compared with Caja, Villica, &c. A variety, however, 

 frequently occurs, in which the crimson colour is replaced by 

 yellow. This is mentioned as an aberration in Staudinger's 

 Catalogue, under the name of luiescens; and also in 

 Ochsenheimer's ' Schmetterlinge von Europa,' vol. iv. p. 208. 



The eggs are laid soon after midsummer, and, like those 

 of its beautiful congener, Dominula, on several different 

 plants ; Boisduval mentions hound's-tongue, mouse-ear, 

 broom, honeysuckle, currant, &c. : they are hatched in the 

 autumn, and the caterpillars live through the winter, feeding 

 and acquiring their full size in the spring, when they spin a 

 flimsy cocoon, like that of Dominula. Through the kindness 

 of my friend Mr. Doubleday I have the opportunity of 

 describing a full-fed caterpillar : — 



The head is scarcely so wide as the 2nd segment, very 

 glabrous, distinctly notched on the crown, and with convex 

 cheeks ; the body is almost uniformly cylindrical, the 2ud, 

 3rd, 4th and 13th segments being rather smaller than the 

 rest; each segment has a whorl of twelve warts, some of 

 them compound, and scarcely any two of them are alike, and 

 each bears a radiating fascicle of spine-like bristles ; the 

 spiracles are nine, as usual, and situated in the usual 

 segments, each is placed immediately adjoining and just 

 in advance of one of the warts : the colour of the head and 

 legs is black; of the body pale testaceous-brown, with three 

 series of paler markings ; the first of these is medio-dorsal, it 

 is faint and irregular in width, being composed of nine 

 bottle-shaped compartments, the base of each being towards 

 the head ; the other series are lateral, and each is composed 

 of nine white spots, each of them double, something like 

 figures-of-8 placed end to end, and each having a delicate 

 black border; these figures-of-8 are on a line with the 

 spiracles, and each, excepting the first, is immediately 

 followed by a black spiracle ; the warts and bristles are paler 

 than the general surface ; the ventral is also paler than the 

 dorsal surface ; the claspers are pale, but marked with brown 

 on the outside ; like the legs they are glabrous, and somewhat 



