1870.] 125 
stripes have totally disappeared, and the head, the plate on second seg- 
ment, with the anal flap aud prolegs, show purplish-red. In the 
individual whose changes L have been tracing the ground-colour at first 
was opaque black, relieved only by the pale yellow sub-dorsal spots, a 
few small freckles, and the spiracles; but investigation with a lens 
disclosed an infinity of little puckers and wrinkles, reminding one of 
the texture of ecrape ; by degrees these wrinkles were smoothed out as 
the creature grew, and the final dress was assumed. 
I shall now describe this same larva when mature, and then give 
notes of the chief varieties, which came under my notice. 
Length, when stretched out, 27 inches. The back and sides of a 
deep bronzy olive-green, but below the spiracles, and on the ventral 
surface, the colour is a smoky deep purplish-pink ; although the 
boundary is clearly defined, yet a gleam of the one colour tinges almost 
imperceptibly the other, both above and below. 
There is no sub-dorsal line, but in its place a row of fourteen 
somewhat roundish spots, four of them on the thoracic segments small, 
the others large, the hinder one somewhat pear-shaped, pale golden- 
yellow in colour, and set in transverse ovals of deep black, which melt 
into the ground colour; the spiracles yellow, outlined with black, and 
surrounded by a cloud of darker olive than the ground colour; a few 
small yellow specks are sprinkled along the sides; one can well make 
out a dorsal thin stripe of deep ochreous-olive, wide at the beginning 
of each segment, looking as though it were showing dimly through the 
surface from a depth below. The head is purplish-pink, the mouth 
black, with a streak of pale yellow above it, and yellow bases to the 
papille, and just above them is a narrow circumferent band of black ; 
the plate on the second segment, the anal flap, and the prolegs are dark 
pinkish-red ; the anterior legs black, the ventral prolegs purplish-pink, 
with an outward bar of black near their extremities ; the born is semi- 
translucent, and blood-red: the whole surface of the skin, excepting on 
the thoracic segments, is now brilliantly polished, and resplendent with 
the play of light at every movement. 
Taking the above as my type, I could make two grand varieties as 
to ground colour—the pale olive and the black; and e/ i of these— 
as well also as my dark olive type—furnished a further sub-division 
through variation in points of detail. 
Var. 1. Neither a light nor a dark olive-green, but bettveen them, 
with the large yellow spots developed into pear shapes, the small end 
of each projecting forwards as a spot on the segment in advance. 
Var, 2. Dark reddish-brown, with just a tinge of olive, and with 
