328 Captain T. Hutton’s Characters of 
curls, and not web-like as in Bombyx. The cocoon is too small 
to become valuable. I have taken cocoons both in May and in 
August. The larva is usually found stretched along a thin branch, 
to which it clings very closely, and is scarcely distinguishable 
from the wood. 
2. Octnara LacTEA, Hutton. (Pl. XIX. fig. 6.) 
The larva of this species feeds likewise upon the Ficus venosa, 
at the same place and elevation as the last, and is often found 
with it on the same tree. It appears to be a far more abundant 
species than the former, and is usually found stretched along the 
extreme end of a twig, and so close that it appears to be part and 
parcel of the branch; at other times it will be found obliquely 
erect and stiff so as to resemble a dry stick. When very young 
it resorts also to the edges and back of the leaf. It is without 
hairs, and quite naked. The young worm is of a pale-yellowish 
green, resembling the leaf-stalk upon which it rests; on the back 
of the second segment is a slightly raised transverse ridge tinged 
with brown, and on the fifth and ninth segments are two slightly- 
raised round tubercles of the same colour; an anal horn, on the 
penultimate segment, which is also light brown. When adult, the 
colour changes to a russet brown like the bark of the tree, and 
the transverse ridge and tubercles become well developed and 
somewhat darker than the rest of the body; the anal horn or 
spine generally appears as if truncated by the loss of the summit, 
—yet such is not the case, as the extremity is retractile, and is 
generally withdrawn into the lower part as a sheath; when the 
animal is about to moult, or is disturbed and irritated, the sum- 
mit of this spine is exserted, and instead of being brown, like the 
base, is whitish; when exserted the whole stands erect, slightly 
inclining backwards. It would be a difficult task to explain the 
use of this curious contrivance, and | have been hitherto unable to 
detect anything that could lead me even to conjecture what purpose 
it can possibly serve. 
The shape of the larva is similar to that of O. dilectula, as 
figured in the second volume of the Lepidopterous Insects in the 
India Museum, except that in the figure of the latter there are no 
raised tubercles. 
From the larva of the preceding species it differs both in shape 
and habits. In O. lactea the entire form and appearance are those 
of a Geometra, but it nevertheless progresses in the usual way like 
the larva of Bombyx. In its manner of stretching from the twig 
to an adjacent leaf while feeding, and in its habit, when at rest, 
