9746 Insects. 



extending from the base to the margin, and a much shorter mark of the same colour 

 in front of this, originating in the disk, but also extending to the margin; head, 

 thorax and abdomen apple-green, irrorated with dingy whitish green. Tlie butterflies 

 produced from the individuals described appeared on the wing on the 4th and 6th of 

 June. I am indebted to Mr. Hudson for specimens of the egg, larva and pupa; for 

 a supply of the food-plant ; and for information respecting the economy of this species. 

 A brief description of the larva having already appeared in the 'Entomologist,' this 

 life-liisiory cannot suital)ly appear in that journal. — Edward Neivman. 



Life-History of Pygccva bucepho.la (buff tip).— At the beginning of June these 

 singular molhs may frequenily be found coupled in pairs on the trunks of lime, elm 

 and other trees, or on the herbage below them, the truncate heads and closely con- 

 volute wings giving each pair the appearance of a single piece of dead and dried stick. 

 As soon as ihey separate the eggs are laid in a patch of from thirty to sixty, mostly on 

 the upper side of a leaf; they are convex above and flat beneath, of a China white 

 colour, and having, in the middle of the convex portion, a very conspicuous black dot, 

 at which the young larva emerges in fourteen days; and after eating a jiortion of the 

 egg-shell around the point of emergence, they feed in company on the upper cuticle 

 and the parenchyma of the leaf, leaving the veins entire and connected by the lower 

 cuticle: they have then large shining black heads, and much narrower yellow bodies, 

 beset with long sofi hairs, and adorned with series of black spots or blotches, of which 

 the mediodorsal series is by fir the most conspicuous, the lateral series consisting of 

 minute and incoiispicu(Uis spots ; the dorsal surface of the 2nd segment as well as the 

 whole of the 13th segment is l)lack, as are also the anal claspers, whicii are con- 

 stantly elevated, rarely touching the leaf on which the little creatures are standing: 

 after eight days they undergo the first moult, and then separate into little companies 

 of six, eight or ten, each company ascending to the lip of a leaf, and feeding at the 

 edge in the usual manner ; but when resting each little company huddles together on 

 the surface of the leaf, reposing side liy side with the aual claspers elevated: the 

 head is now still more largely developed, much broader than the body, and shining 

 black ; the dorsal surface of the 2nd and 13ih segments arc still black ; after a second 

 moult the head is less conspicuously large, and the body more variegated ; as the larva 

 continues to grow the markings develope themselves; and the head and body become 

 covered with soft flexible and rather long hairs. The larvae are full fed towards the 

 end of July, and are readily found by the devastation they cause: each brood fixes on 

 some topmost or outside branch of Uiraus campestris (elm), Tilia europaea (lime), Cory- 

 lus avellana (nut), or other tree, for it appears a very general feeder, and, completely 

 stripping off the foliage, leaves the twigs as bare as in the depth of winter: these 

 voracious colonies are seldom within reach of the hand, but if a stick be thrown up 

 the larvae descend in a perfect shower ; they are extremely flaccid and never roll in a 

 ring, but almost immediately on regaining their legs turn their heads towards the trunk 

 of the tree whence they have been shaken, and reascend, traversing the branches and 

 twigs until they attain an elevation and exposure satisfactory to their minds. The 

 head of the full-fed larva is prone, exserted, and of nearly the same width as the body ; 

 it is covered with crowded but minute punctures, and with fine silky hairs; body uni- 

 formly cylindrical, clothed with very fine silky hairs, and having a glabrous corneous 

 plate on the I3lh segment, which decreases in size after each moult. Colour 

 of the head black, with a bright yellow mark on the face in the form of a letter 

 V reversed : the base of the auteunal papilla is also yellow : colour of the body dull 



