25 



able place in which it may secrete itself and commence feeding. 

 The hole left in the empty egg-skin is very like such a one as would 

 be made by forcing a finger through a sheet of thin paper. I may 

 add that both the live eggs and their empty skins have been care- 

 fully examined for the micropyle, but no trace of it has been found 

 so far. 



Some Notes on the Larva and a Description. — The diffi- 

 culty I experienced in determining the spring larvae suggested to me 

 that the note I had taken of those found in the previous autumn 

 must be faulty, or that individuals varied considerably in appearance. 

 I therefore determined to carefully examine those that I was rearing 

 in confinement and to compare them with wild larvae if obtainable in 

 the autumn. It will be remembered that the larva, when it leaves 

 the egg, is dull yellow with a jet black shining head, and that at 

 each change of skin the body assumes a greener colour and the head 

 loses much of its blackness. The green colour of the body is, in 

 the earlier stages, quite pale and bright, and it is not until the larva 

 is in its last skin that the dark green colour is assumed. The 

 amount of black about the head also varies considerably in different 

 individuals in the same stage. It is, therefore, difficult to give any 

 reliable description of even the full-fed larva, but the following 

 appears to cover a number that were examined, both of those reared 

 from the spring ova and of those taken wild in autumn. Length 

 15 mm. to 20 mm. Head smaller than the second segment, 

 glabrous, horn-colour, with two or more dark brown or black patches 

 at its base, and sundry dark brown or black markings about the 

 mouth parts. Thoracic plate glabrous green, with four (or more or 

 less) blackish-brown, irregularly angulated patches along its posterior 

 margin. The body tapers towards each end, is dark olive green on 

 the back, and to the lateral skin-fold, which, as well as the ventral area, 

 is paler ; the anal segment is also paler. On the back of each segment 

 are four slightly raised, paler tubercles, and below them on each 

 side another, each emitting a stiff whitish bristle, and on the skin- 

 fold is yet another, from which two bristles spring, the whole giving 

 the larva a somewhat hairy appearance (Plate I, figs. 2 — 5). 



With regard to the duration of the larval life. The larvae collected 

 in spring all pupated and produced imagines between June 10th and 

 August 3rd. Of those reared from ova deposited early in July by 

 one of the moths reared in June about two thirds pupated in autumn, 

 and produced imagines between September 18th and December 

 13th, this last being reared indoors from one that pupated early in 

 November. But about a dozen of the larva? of this brood are, at the 

 time of writing, still living on a growing plant of Euonymus in a 

 cool greenhouse. They have spun themselves in somewhat more 

 securely than is the case in summer time, and feed very slowly, 

 increasing but little, if at all, in size. It cannot, however, be said 

 that they are hibernating in the general acceptation of the meaning 

 of that term. All the larvae collected in autumn pupated, and 



