7254 Insects, 



each ; the 9th and following ones have two each ; there are several indistinct stripes 

 and dots on each side of the body. Feeds on Galium Mollugo (the great hedge bed- 

 straw), and is full fed on the 22nd July, when it spins a cocoon on the surface of the 

 earth. This species sometimes becomes double-brooded in captivity, but not in a state 

 of nature. — Edward Newman. 



Description of the Larva of Melanippe subtristata. — Head of nearly the same dia- 

 meter as the body, which is uniformly cylindrical ; rests generally in a nearly straight 

 posture, but when disturbed lucks in its head very tightly, thus giving to the anterior 

 portion of the body the ligure of the Ionic volute. Head pellucid, smoky brown 

 dotted with black, and having two darker brown lines which meet on the crown : body 

 brown, beautifully variegated and mottled ; the 2nd, 3rd and 4th segments have a 

 median black line, and on each of the six succeeding segments is a somewhat horse- 

 shoe-shaped median white mark, the last of which terminates in a median brown 

 stripe, which extends through the 11th and 12th segments, and to the extreme tip of 

 the 13th ; these marks might be called lozenge-shaped, but they are open at the pos- 

 terior extremity ; the enclosed space in each is brick-red, with a median transverse 

 black bar ; there are two or four white dots on the back of each segment, and nume- 

 rous waved markings of different shapes on the sides. Feeds on Galium Mollugo (the 

 great hedge bedstraw), and is full-fed on the 30th June, when it spins a slight cocoon 

 on the earth, and changes to a pupa. This species is double-brooded both in a state 

 of nature and in captivity. The question whether the two species of Melanippe, rivata 

 and subtristata, are identical or distinct, is one which has often occupied the attention 

 of our most acute lepidopterists ; I confess myself unable to appreciate the reasons 

 that have been assigned for considering them identical, and have therefore always kept 

 them separate: this opinion, however, has been formed almost entirely on superficial 

 grounds, and without that minute attention to distinctive characters on which alone 

 such a conclusion should be grounded. It is therefore with extreme pleasure that I 

 now cite from the memoranda of Mr. Hellins the following excellent observations : — 

 " Between the larva; of Melanippe rivata and M. subtristata there is at first sight as 

 great a similarity as exists between the same insects in the perfect slate : the ground- 

 colour of both is the same, varying from a pale fawn-colour through a greenish brown 

 to a dull green, and even sometimes to a bright green, the lines and borders ofj the 

 markings being of a deeper tint of the ground-colour, and often tinged with a good 

 deal of red; in both, the segmental divisions are light red, though this indeed may be 

 observed in a very great number of gray and brown larvae, and in both the dorsal 

 markings are of the same shape, namely, dark longitudinal lines bordered with light 

 on the front and hind segments, and on the intermediate ones blunt white arrow- 

 heads,* pointing forwards and placed at the segmental divisions, the white being 

 clearest and brightest at the point, enclosing a diamond-shaped spot of a dark tint of 

 the ground-colour, which at its hinder end runs indistinctly into the broken dorsal line, 

 and themselves enclosed, on the front edge, by a dark suffused V-shaped mark, the 

 apex of which runs into the dorsal line, and the sides appear to reach down to the 

 spiracles, but become indistinct when examined with a lens. So far these species are 

 alike, but a careful examination of a number of specimens during the past two or three 



* Perhaps lozenges would be a better word, but the other was chosen on account 

 of the opening of the hinder end, which seems to admit the shaft of the arrow. — /. H. 



