10 CHERRY. 



I found a difference in the colour with advance of age. The small cast 

 skins were black or blackish, and most of these had the branched 

 spines of a black tint ; but in some cases the spine was tawny, or of an 

 ochre colour lipped with black, as in the adult larva. In all the 

 specimens wliich I examined, t!ie heads were set with short, black, 

 blunt points. 



On the shorter twig there was a stripe or patch an inch in length, 

 by about a quarter of an inch in breadth, of empty egg-shells, occupying 

 about half the circumference of the twig. These eggs in their present 

 state were very pretty objects. The contents being hatched out, the 

 egg-shells were a mere whitish film, globular below, open above, so as 

 much to resemble the shape of a common gold-fish bowl, and with 

 about six ribs, of which the upper ends were well defined, running 

 some way from the open top down the sides of the miniature bowl. 

 These ribs were obviously the remains of what, whilst the egg was 

 unhatched, would have been the star-shaped marking on the top 

 noticed by Dr. Taschenberg (see previous reference). The eggs were 

 firmly glued to the twig in about eleven longitudinal rows, the greatest 

 number in one row being about thirty-three eggs. 



The caterpillars, which I received alive from Mr. Gibb, were quite 

 characteristic, and agreed almost to the minutest particular with Mr. 

 Buckler's detailed description.* Speaking generally, they were of a 

 black ground colour, but sprinkled with ochrey freckles along the 

 back, so as to form two longitudinal stripes separated by a black line 

 down the middle of the back ; on the sides the tints are greyer. A 

 *' puffed ridge " of ochrey brown along the region of the black ochrey 

 brown ringed spiracles. Lower part of the sides darker below; abdomen 

 black below. Head black, studded with black points, and the claw- 

 legs blnck ; with the exception of the second segment, all the others 

 are spiny, the third and fourth segments have four spines each, the 

 fifth to the twelfth, inclusive, seven spines each, all branched (see fig., 

 p. Gj ; the spines are yellowish, or ochrey brown, tipped with black. 



Some of the caterpillars sent me turned to chrysalids on the 

 journey, and another suspended itself by the tail, and went through the 

 transformation, and at first the tints were very beautiful. The figure 

 (p. 6) shows the angular shape with the centre of the thorax raised to 

 a kind of obtuse point ; also the notched ridge running along the 

 centre of the back ; on each side of the back, excepting near the 

 thorax, was a row of tubercles, yellow at the extremity, and ringed 

 with black. At the thoracic end of this row of tubercles, they are 

 replaced by three spots on each side, which at first are very conspicuous 



* See ' LarvEe of British Butterflies and Moths ' (Ray Society), by the late W» 

 Buckler, vol. i. p. 54. 



