Insects. 9815 



oviposition is from the beginning to the middle of June. In about a fortnight, that 

 is, from the middle to the end of June, the young larvae emerge; they have then black 

 heads and ochre-coloured bodies: almost in)mediately after emergence they begin 

 drawing together two or three leaves of the scabious or of the neighbouring herbage, 

 and spin a slight gauzy veil over the interstices ; enclosed in this domicile, they devour, 

 in company, the under side of a scabious leaf, leaving only the epidermis, which very 

 soon becomes brown in blotches: as soon as the little community has extracted all the 

 nutriment from the leaf or leaves included within the first enclosure, it moves to other 

 leaves, and by united labours the larvae construct a much larger dwelling, sometimes 

 even extending over the leading stem and enclosing the flowering' stem with its apical 

 flower-bud. Towards the end of summer the larvae, then scarcely half-grown, become 

 sluggish, and, ceasing to eat, they descend low down among the herbage, where they 

 again spin a silken domicile, beneath the shelter of which they pass the winter: as 

 soon as the plant begins to grow in the spring, these larvae break up their winter 

 establishment, and each seeks its own provisions, independently of the others, and 

 without the protection of a web ; indeed they seem quite fearless of exposure, often 

 indulging in a noon-day siesta in bright sunshine on a dried leaf, or in any other ex- 

 posed situation ; this continues until the end of April, when, being full fed, the larval 

 existence terminates: at this period the larva rests in a straight position, but falls oflF 

 its food-plant when touched or disturbed, and forms a lax ring, the head tucked in 

 and the anal extremity protruding. Head scarcely narrower than the 2nd segment, 

 semiporrect, emitting sliflF bristles: body obese, incisions of the segments well marked ; 

 2nd segment with two short bristly obtuse spines on each side below the spiracles ; the 

 3rd and 4th segments have each eight spines; the 5th and succeeding segments have 

 each nine spines, the additional spine being mediodorsal, and the aggregate of these 

 forming a mediodorsal series; all the spines are short, obtuse, scabrous, and furnished 

 with bristles. Colour of the head black : body velvety black, irrorated with circular white 

 dots, which are irregularly ranged in three principal but ill-defined series; one medio- 

 dorsal, the others spiracular ; each white dot emits a black bristle from its centre ; legs 

 black ; claspers pale smoke-coloured. It is worthy of remark that in the supply of 

 this larva under my notice nine out of every ten were infested by ichneumonideous 

 parasites; these emerged from the lepidopterous larvae in the larva state, and spinning 

 little silken cocoons outside the larva, fastened down the wretchedly atrophied but still 

 living larva of the butterfly, and, fixing it immovably, left it to perish miserably: 

 the number of these parasites in each larva varied from ten to twenty-six ; the 

 cocoons which they spun were of a pale sulphur colour, and were elongate-oval in 

 shape : the majority of them emerged between the 18th and 25th of May, and 

 proved to be a species of Microgaster. It would appear that but a small 

 proportion of the larvae of Melitaea Artemis escape this formidable parasite. The 

 full-fed larva of Artemis generally selects some curled leaf or mass of tangled 

 herbage, and thus concealed spius a slight silken coating over the surface of the object 

 selected, and suspending itself by the anal claspers, changes to a pupa, which hangs in 

 the same way. The pupa is short and obese, the head being transversely produced in 

 front and broadly truncate; the base of each wing-case is slightly produced: the 

 abdomen is very convex, its anal extremity bent under towards the extremity of the 

 wing-cases, and the dorsal outline being almost semicircular; the caudal extremity is 

 attached by the cremastrae to a slight web spun about the margin of the scabious leaf. 

 Colour creamy white (changing, as the time of metamorphosis approaches, to a deep 



