the Biology of some British Neuroptera. 



555 



The body colour is creamy-white or often bright yellow, with a 

 latero-dorsal band, dark brown or crimson, running on each side of 

 the more yellow central area. 



The prothoras has two elongate, dark brown, shiny sclerites 

 imbedded in the longitudinal brown bands. Meso- and meta- 

 thorax have each a smaller pair-. The lateral prominences of these 

 two last segments are more conspicuous than any others of the body, 

 and are yellow in colour. Central area of thorax, yellow. 



In the abdomen, the latero-dorsal chocolate-coloured bands are 

 more broken up, diffusing into the central area and also sending 

 laterally a small process forward, in each segment, enclosing a yellow 

 spot. A median brovvn line runs the greater part of the body length. 

 Laterally there is a dark brown line, often two, on each side. As 

 previously mentioned, the warts and lateral segmental prominences 

 are less pronounced in this than in other species. Legs white, 

 semitransparent, joints and tips of tarsi blackish. 



A small white cocoon, 3-4 mm. long, is spun for pupation, 

 and, in a week or so after spinning, the pupa is disclosed, 

 followed by the appearance of the imago in the space of 

 another two to three weeks. The pupa is at first of a pink 

 colour with longitudinal pale crimson bands in the position 

 of the larval dorso-lateral bands, and on each side of the 

 future imaginal dorsal vitta. In a few days the pink 

 colour is replaced by green, the eyes become golden, and 

 general colour is that of the imago. 



Eggs in the first case above were obtained from a hiber- 

 nated female. The second example is that of the second 

 brood. Both sexes of the second brood hibernate in out- 

 houses, thatch, piled wood and other shelter, and may be 

 brought out in mid-winter by a warm spell. A male and 

 female were thus found in a greenhouse on the roof of the 

 Royal College of Science, London, on the 7th December, 1921, 

 artificial heating having been commenced the day. previous. 

 On emergence, the specimens which are to hibernate are 

 green in colour, but in time some assume a reddish hue 

 {carnea Stephens). This red form is not confined to either 

 sex, but appears quite at random. In the case of the pair 



