DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES OF CONSPICUOUS SPECIES 215 



fore-wings are traversed by two rather faint whitish 

 lines, and on the hind margin of the hind-wings are a 

 few small whitish blotches. 



The larva is reddish-brown, with the dorsal and sub- 

 dorsal lines fuscous ; on each of the fifth to ninth seg- 

 ments is a pair of dark brown papillae, one outside each 

 subdorsal line, furnished with a single hooked bristle ; 

 the use of these hooked bristles is very peculiar, and has 

 been well described by the Kev. E. Horton, in the pages 

 of the ' Entomologist's Monthly Magazine ' (vol. ii. 

 pp. 91, 92) ; these larvae clothe themselves with vegetable 

 fragments, and attach the brown scales of oak-buds and 

 other objects to these papillae. Mr. Horton remarks, 

 " Until I had ascertained, by watching a young larva 

 emerge from the egg, that it came out naked, I could 

 scarcely believe that these ornaments were not part of 

 itself, as every individual was so adorned, though appa- 

 rently only just hatched. The one of whose exclusion 

 from the egg I was an eye-witness, was immediately 

 removed to a separate box, and supplied with a petal of 

 a rose, from which, in a few minutes, it made up nine 

 rosy ' favours,' and fastened them, with perfect regu- 

 larity, upon its back ; it then was placed with other 

 larvae of the same species, and soon joined them in 

 gnawing away at the oak-leaves." The Kev. J. Hellins 

 has observed that on two larvae being hatched in one 

 pill-box, where no food was at hand, one killed the other 

 and stuck his carcase on his own back, so great was the 

 innate desire for dress ! (E. M. M. vol. ii. p. 114.) They 

 feed slowly during the autumn, and in April commence 

 attacking the unexpanded buds of the oak ; they are 

 full-fed in May. 



The perfect insect appears towards the middle and 



