414 Dr. T. A. Chapman on Hibernation of Marasmarcha. 
go on for years experimenting on plants growing in an 
ordinary way in a flower-pot without being able to discover 
it, and easily explaining our previous want of success. 
This habit of hibernating as a newly-hatched larva, 
without feeding, is quite new amongst the Plume Moths; 
it is extraordinary, indeed, that such a minute larva should 
be able not only to pass the winter before eating, but 
should also be able to afford to secrete silk and spin a 
cocoon. I cannot remember, indeed, any other similar case 
amongst the Lepidoptera. The Argynnids and Satyrids 
afford some larve that hibernate before feeding, but they 
spin no cocoon. Many young larvee, however, are fully 
formed before winter within the eggs, and pass the winter 
there before hatching. We may assume that an egg- 
shell is a better protection for the winter, under most 
conditions, than a cocoon, or the habit of hibernating 
within it would not be so much more frequent than the 
one I have just related as occurring in Marasmarcha. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXVIII. 
See Hxplanation facing the PLATE. 
y Hf] 
November 201i, 1907. 
