920 (June, 
Natural History of Dasydia obfuscata.—The eges of this species were kindly for- 
warded to Mr. Buckler by Dr. F. Buchanan White in July, 1869. Mr. Buckler took 
notes of the egg-state, and of the young larve till hybernation commenced, and 
from that period handed them over to me. 
The larvee were hatched during August, and the early part of September, fed 
readily upon Calluna vulgaris, and just as readily on Polygonum aviculare, attained 
the length of rather more than a quarter inch before hybernation, near the end of 
October ; began feeding again towards the end of March, 1870; moulted sometime 
during the first fortnight of April, and again in May, and by the end of June the 
most advanced were full fed, but they did not all keep pace together. 
The moths appeared from August 17th to September 5th. 
The egg is shortish-oval in outline, flattened; the sheil ribbed with lines of 
fine beads ; the colour at first yellowish-white, changing in a few days to salmon, 
and again, shortly before hatching, to bluish-grey, the ribs, however, showing 
white to the last. Judging from those sent by Dr. White, the eggs appear to be 
laid in little groups of two or three or even more together, and to be set up on end, 
on the sprays of heather. 
On hatching, the young larva makes its escape from the top of the egg-shell, 
and even at this early age has—for a Geometer—a stout figure ; its colour is pale 
leaden-grey, with a paler sub-dorsal line, which is bordered below with a darker 
grey stripe; the head blackish. 
Just before hybernation, when of the length of rather more than a quarter 
inch, the larva is very rugose ; its colour is now a dingy blackish-brown on the 
back and sides, with a broad, sub-spiracular stripe of reddish or violet-grey, inter- 
sected by a blackish line ; the head blackish, with a grey spot on the crown of each 
lobe ; an indistinct, dark, dorsal stripe, edged with fine grey lines; the tubercular 
raised warts grey, the dorsal pair on the twelfth segment being more prominently 
raised than any of the others. 
As the larva grows it becomes lighter in colour, and when full-fed may be de- 
scribed as follows :—length not quite an inch, figure very stout and stiff, cylindri- 
cal in the middle, slightly flattened at the extremities; the spiracular region form- 
ing a puckered ledge ; head smaller than 2nd segment, and tucked in ; legs short. 
The ground colour grey, in some specimens becoming gradually paler behind ; 
ou the front segments a fine, double dorsal line, enclosing a whitish-grey thread, 
but afterwards this double line appears only as a small, elongated, spear-head in 
the middle of each segment ; the sub-dorsal line is a fine waved pale thread, edged 
with black, and bearing thick, dark dashes at the beginning and end of the seg- 
ments; the tubercular warts are whitish with dark rings, the dorsal pair on twelfth 
are placed close together, and, being more developed than the rest, stand up as 
obtuse points ; the row of warts on 13th segment above the anal flap are very small, 
and black in colour; the spiracles are pale brown ringed with black, and are placed 
in a stripe of dark grey, with darker dashes at the folds, and some fine dark streaks, 
wavy and sloping upwards; this is followed by a line of whitish-grey, which melts 
into the grey or reddish-grey of the belly, the centre of which is buff, and bears a 
row of pairs of brown dashes down the middle, with five sets of curious, curved, 
pairs of streaks on either side at the folds between segments 5—10. 
