DESCRIPTION OF GATERPILLARS. 145 
With regard to appearance, the two kinds mentioned above are 
very similar in being, when full-grown, from about an inch to an inch 
and a half in length, fleshy, cylindrical, sixteen-footed, of a somewhat 
grey, or brownish, or pinkish, or purplish general colour; the head 
dark or dingy brown, armed with black jaws; the next ring to the 
head brown with paler lines, or (in eaclamationis) margined in front 
with dark brown, with a pale line passing through it; on the back of 
each of the other rings or segments are four little black dots, or little 
tubercles, each with a short hair growing out of it; and there are also 
some spots at the side lower down, and more or less noticeable dark 
and pale stripes along the back. 
For practical purposes the above description is sufficient to distin- 
guish them from other larval pests to be found not unfrequently 
accompanying, as Chafer grubs, Daddy Longlegs grubs, or Wireworms. 
But to myself it seems, owing to chance variations from different 
circumstances, also differences which do or may exist after successive 
moults, and also the special difficulty of condition after postal trans- 
mission altering external characteristics, that it is next to impossible, 
without rearing the caterpillars to maturity, to speak with absolute 
certainty as to their specific name. In the excellent description of 
the larva of eaclamationis (grub of Heart and Dart Moth), given in 
‘Larve of British Butterflies and Moths,’ Buckler, vol. v. p. 9, it is 
stated that ‘‘an infallible guide is found in the extra large spiracles 
which distinguish A. eaclamationis”’; but I do not always find this 
difference in size sufficiently well marked to rest upon. 
Last season (1896) I received Surface Caterpillars from half an 
inch long or less up to being nearly or quite full-grown, and they 
afforded excellent examples of their carnivorous habit of preying on 
each other when food falls short. 
Amongst a number of grubs received from Berwick-upon-T weed on 
July 14th, I found, on examination, that one of the largest, then 
either dead or nearly so, had a largish hole torn open in the side, and 
one oi the smallest was greedily swallowing the moisture or accessible 
contents, its jaws working quite fast and noticeably. About half an 
hour after, this one appeared satisfied, and two others were feeding on 
the now dead caterpillar at the same spot, and another endeavouring 
to make a new hole through the skin at another spot. On one of the 
other caterpillars coming near, this, turning from the dead one, tried 
to catch hold with its jaws, but was not allowed. 
In another case I found one of the larger caterpillars holding on to 
a smaller one, and on taking the lesser one up, I found moisture on 
my fingers, and that there was a hole in its side, presumably the 
beginning of devouring its contents on the part of the larger grub. 
The method of life of the caterpillars is to continue to feed (weather 
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