9472 Insects. 



have supposed that Bouche had been mistaken in his determination 

 of the species, we should probably have taten the opportunity of 

 searching for this larva on the lilies of the valley, which are very 

 abundant in some parts of the wood in question : it is the more 

 singular that Bouche should have been led into this error, as he had 

 every opportunity of examining the collection in the Berlin Museum, 

 and appears to have been intimate with Dr. King. 



It was not until the spring of 1801 that I had the opportunity of 

 fully convincing myself that the larva described by Bouche was the 

 larva of Phymatocera aterrima. On the 8th of July of the previous 

 year Dr. Wltewaall had sent me some larva?, which had been found on 

 Convallaria multiflora, and from which larvas the species in question 

 made its appearance in the month of May of the following year. 



The larva) were from 15 to 18 millimetres long, pale purplish gray, 

 stoutish and somewhat humpbacked on the first three segments. 

 They had twenty-two legs ; the six anterior, as also the head, were 

 shining jet-black, the other sixteen were of nearly the same colour as 

 the body, only a little paler. Each segment of the body was divided 

 into four transverse folds, on the second and fourth of which were 

 knobs crowned with one or two little black spines. The knobs on 

 the first three and last segments were a little larger, anil hail a greater 

 nimiber of spines, giving them the appearance shown in fig. 4. There 

 were in all six rows of such little knobs along the body. The dorsal 

 line was darker than the skin appeared to be on other parts of the 

 body. The stigmata were black, triangular. Bouche's description in 

 the above cited work agrees very well with this, as does that of 

 Lyonet, which is, however, less detailed. Fig. 1 represents the 

 largest of my larva; in profile; fig. 2, the same larva magnified, 

 looking on the back ; fig. 3 represents the head and the first three 

 segments, with the three thoracic legs, in profile. 



Those larvaj, which were found on Convallaria multiflora, took very 

 kindly to Convallaria polygonata, of which I found a couple of plants 

 in my garden. They fed in the evening, and were very tardy and 

 dull during the day time, always remaining at rest, and generally with 

 the head drawn under the anterior segments of the body. Lyouet 

 says that these animals, as well as their excrement, emit a not un- 

 pleasant scent of tea; I was, however, not able lo perceive it. 

 Shortly after they came into my possession they moulted for the last 

 time, and went into a mixture of sand and garden-mould, which 1 had 

 placed in their dwelling : in this they constructed such incredibly 

 small cocoons that one could hardly believe the latter could have 



