66 APRIL. 



" As soon as the larva leaves the egg, it loads its 

 body with finely bitten pieces of stems of plants, scales 

 of flowers, hard, dry seed capsules and other small 

 vegetable fragments, which it binds together strongly, 

 although loosely, and in layers, and forms into a mass 

 full of points and projections (requiring much trouble 

 to pull to pieces with pincers), the whole of which it 

 carries about with it like the allied larva of Phoro- 

 desma Bajularia. This covering is, however, very 

 different from the cases of the Psychidce. The larvae 

 enlarge these coverings according to their requirements, 

 and as they hybernate in them when very small, it is 

 not easy to rear them from that state. The warmth of 

 Spring entices them out to the plant on which they 

 feed the milfoil (Achillea millefolium). When reared 

 in confinement, however, they will feed upon Poterium 

 Sanguisorba. The head of the larva is small, and 

 the fore part of the body is also slender ; the hinder 

 part is crossed all over with deep wrinkles and cor- 

 responding elevations. Beyond the first segment 

 the body is flattened on each side. On the back 

 stand four elevations or humps, each terminated by a 

 sickle-shaped hair; a smaller hump stands on each 

 side of the large black spiracle ; these six humps, each 

 on a distinct segment, are separated by long furrows ; 

 the remaining space is covered with innumerable little 

 warts, which make the larva feel rough to the touch 

 viewed with a lens these look like the deep-cleft bark 

 of oak trees. All the remaining segments are covered 

 with these elevations, points, humps and furrows, to 

 which, as may very easily be observed, the little .bits 

 of plants are fastened in layers of small bundles. The 

 larva is earth-brown; a long darker line is on the 



