Early Stages of Albulina pheretes. 395 



Mr. Clark's photographs of the egg and portion includ- 

 ing the micropylar area will supplement these notes. 

 Photographs of the egg and similar area in V. optilete are 

 added for comparison ; the difiference in size of the micro- 

 pylar area is remarkable in two eggs otherwise so similar. 



The newly hatched larva is a bare mm. long, of white or faintly 

 straw or ochreous colour, with black head and black hairs — when 

 full grown in this instar is perhaps rather white, but still with faint 

 ochreous tint on the first segment, more definitely ochreous towards 

 the middle segments, and again paler on the posterior ones, but darker 

 than in front — in a few there is a tendency to almost yellowish 

 colouring laterally, but not amounting to a lateral line or band. 

 They eat small mines in the leaves, in the narrow leaves of Astra- 

 galus alpina they amount to the whole width of the leaflet, but in 

 Phaca friffida and Cohitea the mines are small circles about 1'6 mm. 

 in diameter with a central hole only just large enough to admit the 

 larval head. The measurements suggest that the length of the head 

 and larval neck are together equal to half the diameter of the mine, 

 viz. 0'8 mm. The larva makes a succession of these little mines and 

 never attempts to enlarge one. 



In the second instar the larva works in the same way and makes 

 a mine difl'ering only in its larger size and larger entrance opening, 

 the width of the mine may be 3"3 mm. In the third instar mining 

 may occur, but the usual method is to attack the leaf from above or 

 below and eat the whole thickness except the opposite cuticle. The 

 size and shape of these patches is irregular, but are often bounded 

 by the secondary veins of the leaf. 



In the second instar the larva reaches a length of 3 mm., and is 

 green in colour, with dark (black ?) hair bases and head, a rather 

 darker green dorsal line. The upper part of the slope pale, as if 

 overshaded with white, in the middle of this the pair of lenticles 

 on each segment are conspicuous, along the middle of the slope is a 

 brownish line, thicker in the middle of each segment, suggesting 

 what is perhaps the case, that it represents the diagonal markings of 

 so many Lycaenid larvae. There is some difference of tint along 

 the lateral region, like a faint superficial brownish wash, but nothing 

 to call a lateral line. 



In the third instar the larva is a clear apple green, fairly uniform 

 until a lens is used, when there appears a darker green dorsal line ; 

 on the slopes are two diagonal white lines (downwards and back- 

 wards) and traces of a third, so that in three following segments the 

 three lines form one. In another specimen, the general tone is 

 ochreous due to the green being largely overlaid by biownish 



