220 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



I noticed was a battered female Pyrcmeis gonerilla depositing her 

 eggs upon the young shoots; and a little search disclosed an 

 abundance of larvae of all sizes, from tiny individuals just hatched 

 to those full grown and ready to pupate, besides a plentiful 

 supply of chrysalids. I was of course delighted to make the 

 acquaintance of this fine species in all its stages, and to be able 

 to note its habits, which are almost identical with those of 

 Pyrantels atalanta. The first thing the young larva does as soon 

 as it is hatched is to fasten the edges of a tender leaf together so 

 as to form a little tent, from which it issues forth from time to 

 time to feed. As it grows older it increases the size of its tent 

 by appropriating larger leaves, and when full-grown it spins a 

 pad of silk to the midrib of the leaf which forms the roof of its 

 tent, and from this suspends itself and changes to a chrysalis, 

 when it hangs snugly protected from every change of weather. 

 Some of the nettles were so devoured that the larvae had literally 

 been eaten out of house and home, and were wandering dis- 

 consolately about the plants. Where there was plenty of food 

 they only appeared to move a short distance from their tents to 

 feed, and as soon as the leaves near them were consumed they 

 changed their quarters and constructed a new domicile. The 

 chrysalids were so easy to find that I only boxed a small number 

 of larvae for the purpose of description. 



I was much interested in reading Mr. Hudson's life-history of 

 this species in the 'Entomologist ' (xvi. 217), and am surprised 

 that he should have been unable to find the chrysalis ; but this 

 I think may be accounted for by the fact that in the locality 

 where Mr. Hudson took his larvae they were, comparatively 

 speaking, scarce, and were feeding upon a stunted form of nettle, 

 so that the chrysalids could not be so easily seen ; whereas in the 

 gullies near Lyttelton the larvse occurred in such numbers upon 

 plants — or rather shrubs — from three to four feet high, and the 

 tents in which the chrysalids were hanging were generally on the 

 highest part of a stem and so conspicuous, that they could often 

 be detected without any difficulty directly one glanced towards 

 the spot.* These butterflies, as Mr. Hudson remarks, are very 



* As my description of the larva differs slightly from that of Mr. Hudson 

 (whose acquaintance I subsequently had much pleasure in making at Wellington), 

 I will give it briefly here : — Length 1-6 to 1*8 in. Cylindrical, tapering towards each 

 extremity, and with the median segments much thickened. Head slightly notched 



