140 | November, 
ground with us, that it probably closely resembled that early pest vanthographa ; 
and this belief was strengthened three or four years ago, by the fact of Mr. Har-. 
wood having bred one specimen of umbrosa from a lot of larvae which he had col- 
lected as those of canthographa. 
I have at length been able to prove our surmise to be correct, thanks to Mr. 
George Norman, to whom I feel deeply indebted for his taking much pains in ob- 
taining and sending me from Forres, three separate batches of eggs of umbrosa, on 
July 27th, 28th, and 30th, 1870. From them, the young larvee began to hatch res- 
pectively on August 3rd, 5th,and 11th. At first, grass was provided for them, but 
they refused to eat, and some of them died. I then supplied them with dock leaves, 
and thenceforth all went well; they fed and throve satisfactorily ; but, towards the 
end of November, dock began to fail, and the few leaves I could then obtain were 
supplemented with bramble, of which the larvae partook freely. My chief object 
being to obtain figures of the larva, I did all I could think of to force them on to 
full growth, and succeeded with some of them by feeding with Plantago lanceo- 
lata, Galium mollugo, Vinca major, and garden-strawberry leaves, all of which they 
ate at intervals, when the rigour of winter in the least abated. At length the Peri- 
winkle became the only food procurable, and on this they did very well; for,even | 
while the snow lay on the ground, the leaves of this plant continued green and suc- 
culent ; thus, between the intervals of hard frost, the larve crawled out of their 
temporary hibernacula of curled-up, dry bramble leaves, and partook of their food. 
Of course they were not kept in the open air, but in a room without a fire, so that 
at no time were they exposed to frost. 
Towards the end of February and beginning of March, 1871, young dock leaves 
began to appear, and, with an increase of temperature, the larves became more lively 
and hungry ; the smaller ones, whose coats had become dingy, now moulted and 
fed, while the others that had reached their full growth about Christmas began to 
stir, and show symptoms of approaching pupation ; they grew smaller, their colours 
merged into a darkness, which spread over them as they retired into moss; several 
of them becoming pupze between February 27th and March 11th. 
The others continued to feed chiefly on dock, with a little of Scrophularia 
aquatica, and attained their full size the first week in April; they then, however, 
like their predecessors, began to dwindle, and became darker and darker till they 
were blackish-brown. A few entered the earth, the rest went into moss, where 
they assumed the pupa state, but without forming any cocoon in either; though 
those in the moss appeared to be steadied in their positions by a slight thread or 
two. The moths appeared from June 8th to 13th. 
The egg is circular, domed above and flattened beneath, finely ribbed and 
reticulated. When first laid, it is of a yellowish-white colour, and changes in six 
days to a glistening pink, and finally to pinkish-grey. 
The young larva, when hatched, had at first a pale brown head, and greenish- 
grey body, paler and pellucid at the segmental divisions; in eight or nine days 
they were pale, semi-transparent, yellowish-green, with distinct black dots. At 
their next change, at the end of another week, they were three-eighths of an inch 
long, and not translucent, but with a suffusion of opaque-brown over the back 
and. sides, giving them a velvety, brownish-green look; and there then appeared 
dorsal, sub-dorsal, and lateral lines, paler than the ground ; between the lateral 
