232 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



fastened down over each other. These are conspicuous objects, 

 particularly in the young nettle beds. If the nettles happen to 

 be in flower they will occasionally compose the cave entirely of 

 its drooping flower or seed tassels, and then they are not quite 

 so easy to see. Sometimes the shoot is bitten halfway through, 

 about 4 in. or 5 in. from its tip, which causes it to droop over the 

 lower part of the stalk, where it is formed into a cave with 

 the aid of the adjoining leaves, which are fastened securely to the 

 main stem. When full fed the larvae spin a pad of silk on the 

 roof of their cave and from it suspend themselves to chauge to 

 pupae. In confinement, where the larvae were a good bit crowded, 

 they often ate each other out of house and home, and then 

 crawled on to the muslin covering of their breeding-cage, upon 

 which they spun pads of silk and suspended themselves there- 

 from. A few endeavoured to surround themselves with a screen 

 of open network, but the greater number hung perfectly free. 



The bottles for containing the food, standing on the floor of 

 the breeding-cages, were packed round with fine shavings so as 

 to keep them steady and in position. Several larvae managed 

 to force themselves into the shavings and construct very com- 

 fortable-looking caves, wherein they became pupae. Other larvae 

 were kept under large glass cylinders, with muslin pasted over 

 the top. This was a capital style of breeding-cage, as the 

 movements of the larva could be so easily watched. 



On several occasions I saw the full-grown larvae exposed on a 

 leaf, but they were not feeding — merely resting, I fancy, before 

 constructing a fresh tent, for they often eat themselves out of 

 their original dwellings, and then have to construct new ones. 



These larvae do not vary very much. The typical form is 

 grey-green, with yellowish spines. But there is one handsome 

 <ariety — nearly jet-black, with a conspicuous spiracular stripe 

 formed of large yellow blotches, and all the upper surface is 

 thickly irrorated with little yellow dots. It is a fat, stumpy 

 larva, and to the touch feels like a piece of india-rubber. 



The larvae of atalanta do not seem to suffer as much from the 

 attacks of ichneumons, etc., as those of lo or urticce. In some of 

 the turned-over leaves I found the shrivelled remains of small 

 larvae, together with a number of little white or amber-coloured 

 cocoons of some species of ichneumon. A few of the larger ones, 

 when suspended for change, instead of turning to pupae became 

 black and flaccid and much distended with fluid, and this I think 

 was due to some form of disease caused by the wet weather. 



Some of the pupae, a short time after assuming that state, 

 became much discoloured, and are apparently dead, but so far 

 have not disclosed any parasites. 



Up to the present time I have taken six pupas and 355 larvae 

 of atalanta, and have bred 21 imagines, the first one emerging on 

 July 31st. 



