ON THE LARVA OF LIPHYRA BRASSOLIS. 227 



margin of the open (and soft) ventral area present a series of 

 dark markings, very slightly raised on rounded elevations, hut 

 so shaded as to look very much so. As it now lies on its hack, 

 it is not unlike a Melton-Mowbray pork-pie, of perhaps unusual 

 oval shape, and sides more than usually sloping, the resemblance 

 being heightened by the brown (chitinous) crust-colour of the 

 sides, and the dark markings representing the more baked mar- 

 ginal sinuations with which such pies are often ornamented. 

 The lid of the pie is the small flat ventral area of the larva, 

 slightly wider anteriorly, and presenting the head, legs, prologs, 

 &c. This area is pale and white, and is the only portion Avhere 

 any movement can possibly occur, the rest being a solid chitinous 

 cap. Constructed as it is to permit this soft area to be absolutely 

 covered and hidden on the surface on which the larva rests, one 

 is surprised at its widening out above this area, quite regularly 

 till, at a sudden sharp margin, the sides meet the flat top. The 

 brown marginal marks are apparently two to a segment, certainly 

 so at the sides where they are largest, and where a faint de- 

 pression along the sloping sides seems to mark each segmental 

 division. To see this, however, requires close examination, and 

 some might say a little imagination. 



Turning the larva over again, to examine the back more 

 carefully, we find the margin very sharp, and slightly browner 

 than the terra-cotta centre. Laterally and posteriorly it is a 

 little hollowed within the margin. Across the middle are three 

 very distinct lines, darker in colour, and with the surface in 

 front of them decidedly higher than that behind. They occupy 

 the middle two-fourths of the surface, but do not invade the 

 fourths on each side next the margin. In front and behind 

 these the indication of the segmental divisions are very obscure. 

 A faint indication of a dorsal ridge exists in front of these lines. 

 There are also a number of dots that appear to be obsolete hair- 

 points, arranged in some degree as a transverse line across each 

 segment, but with outlines enough to make such a statement a 

 little doubtful or even misleading. The two segments marked out 

 by the dorsal lines are the fourth and fifth abdominal. 



The character of the sharp margin of the dorsal area wants 

 a little more definite description. In the first place, the out- 

 sloping sides, for their top millimetre, cease to slope, but beconie 

 vertical ; then inside the sharp border the surface descends again 

 steeply, so as to form a sharp raised border to the central area. 

 In front the inner slope soon bends into the flat dorsal area ; 

 behind it does so more slowly, resulting in the hollow above 

 noticed ; round this portion there is, inside as well as outside, 

 the sharp margin, a breadth of about 1 mm., differentiated by a 

 slight line from the general dorsal surface. Seen microscopically, 

 the whole surface consists of very minute raised dots, each carry- 

 ing a fine point ; on the marginal flange surrounding the dorsum 



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