BOMBYCID.E. • 19 



at front and back ; general colour rich dark chestnut-brown, 

 with slender dashes of light fulvous down the region of 

 the dorsal line; subdorsal stripes light blue, interrupted, 

 and with still more interrupted light orange-red lines below 

 them, beneath which last are fragmentary blue spiracular lines. 

 The tufts of hairs are reddish, most abundant along the sides, 

 but plentiful over the whole surface. Under surface blackish, 

 legs black, prolegs dark grey, with light brown claspers. 

 Sometimes there are complete blue dorsal, subdorsal, and 

 spiracular stripes ; in other cases the intermediate orange- 

 red or red-brown stripes are more conspicuous. 



May, June, and the beginning of July, on low-growing 

 plants in salt marshes— PZft7i/«^c> maritima, Artemesia mari- 

 tima, Atriplex poiiulacoides, A. littoralis, Statice limonium, 

 apparently almost any of the saltern plants, including 

 grasses. In confinement will feed greedily upon Polygonum 

 avicidare, rose, birch, apple, pear, cherry, plum, and black- 

 thorn, es]3ecially after the leaves have been dipped in salt 

 water. Not, however, very easy to rear in captivity, unless 

 allowed plenty of sunshine and air, and also having upon its 

 food, and even its body, an occasional sprinkling of water. 

 In its natural condition it is well supplied with water, since 

 the marsh beneath it is always wet, and very high tides 

 invade its food. Indeed, the eggs, which are laid in August 

 and do not hatch till May, must very frequently be under water 

 during the equinoctial tides of both autumn and spring. 

 The young larvae construct a silken tent or web, low down 

 among the marsh plants, in which they live gregariously 

 when the weather is cool or dull, but sunshine arouses them, 

 and they love to bask upon their food-plants. Mr. W. H. 

 Wright wrote me in 1892 : " The larvee are in thousands on 

 the salt marshes near Shoeburyness. I saw some yesterday 

 (June 19th) not larger than ants, extremely small in fact; 

 others larger, in companies, in such abundance that it was 

 difficult to avoid treading on them ; the half -grown larvae 

 lying side by side, in masses, on the sea-plantain and other 



