LEPIDOPTERA. 401 



day, to the number of thirty-two, each being of the size of a large 

 mustard-seed, and of a mottled brownish colour. During the whole 

 of the succeeding day she remained perfectly stationary, clinging to 

 the window-frame, but in the evening deposited eighty-four eggs, and 

 on the following evenings she again deposited as follows : — on the 

 15th, thirty-eight eggs ; on the 16th, twenty-one eggs ; on the 17th, 

 sixteen eggs ; on the 18th, twenty-one eggs ; on the 19th, fourteen 

 eggs ; on the 20th, fourteen eggs ; and on the 21st, seven eggs — 

 amounting in all to 246 eggs, — and she then died. On the 28th 

 April I received a male and female from the same place, and in the 

 evening the female deposited eighty-nine eggs, and continued each 

 night to increase the number until she had deposited 3C0 eggs, when 

 she died. 



■" On the 30th April, or eighteen days from the time of deposition, 

 the first batch of eggs began to hatch. The newly-born larva is about 

 three lines in length, hairy, and of a pale rufous-red, with a single 

 black band across the middle of the body, and a small black transverse 

 mark on the anterior segment ; along the back are two rows of small 

 tubercles, and another along each side, from each of which spring a 

 few short hairs, the base of which forms a small black dot ; there is 

 also an anal tubercle, larger than the others, and placed between the 

 two last tubercles of the dorsal rows ; the head is black. 



" I was now exceedingly puzzled to find out the proper food, and, 

 having unsuccessfully tried several kinds, at last gave them the leaves 

 of our common hill oak (an Ilex), of which they ate sparingly, and 

 without appetite. This was evidently not the proper food ; and, 

 although they continued to eat it, they did not thrive, but died in such 

 numbers that I had at last only five larvae left out of 546 ; and even 

 these I was in daily expectation of losing, when, by a lucky chance, 

 on the 30th of June, I discovered a single larva in the forest feeding 

 on a tree known to the natives as the Munsooree.* 



" Branches of this tree were now substituted for the oak, and from 

 thenceforward the larva? ate greedily, and increased rapidly in size. 

 The first moult commenced when six days old, and this occupied 

 three days, so that at the end of nine days the larva appeared in its 

 second stage. The black transverse band upon the body had disap- 

 peared, but the head still remained of that colour, and the rest of the 

 body was hairy and rufous, the tubercles being black on the summit, 

 and more prominent ; pro-legs brown. 



* Coriaria nipalensis. 



