438 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



bably too old). The egg slightly shining, the surface slightly pitted, 

 one pole, however, being much more distinctly pitted. When laid in 

 heaps (attached to each other) they are very irregular in outline. 

 [Eggs laid August 4th, 1898, described August 8th, with a two-thirds, 

 used as a hand, lens.] Esper notes the eggs as " laid upon each other 

 in heaps ; in shape and colour not unlike those of S. filipendulae ; the 

 larvae hatched after 14 days, and fed for a few weeks ; they then hyber- 

 nated." We can confirm the statement that the eggs are laid in heaps, 

 two (sometimes three) layers in thickness. The empty eggshell is 

 quite transparent, and by far the most pitted of all the allied species, 

 the pittings taking the form of a very distinct polygonal reticulation. 

 The embryo usually escapes from the micropylar end, but occasionally 

 (when the micropyle is covered by an overlapping egg) from the side. 



Habits of larva. — A female, received from Chapman in early 

 July, 1897, had laid batches of eggs on the upper leaves of trefoil, and 

 the young larvse from these spun considerable loose, flossy web over 

 the stems and leaves, and had eaten little patches out of the upper sur- 

 faces of the leaf, leaving, however, in many cases, the under epidermis 

 untouched. Buckler states that eggs of this species in his possession, 

 hatched on July 10th, that the young larvae fed on Thymus serpyllum, 

 and refused Pimpinella saxifraga, that they grew very slowly, were 

 no bigger than a leaf of wild thyme, and much like it in outline, when 

 they settled down for hybernation in the beginning of September. 

 They assembled in two little groups for this purpose, spinning some 

 silk on the underside of the stoutest stems of their food-plant to rest 

 upon, and remained there until the end of February. During this 

 time it was difficult to distinguish them from a withered thyme-leaf, 

 so similar were they in colour, and furnished with little hairs of the 

 same length. Throughout their growth the larva? moved and fed 

 with most energy in the sunshine. In moulting, Buckler remarks that 

 the skin splits all along the back, as in A. trifolii. Dorfmeister says that 

 the larvse hybernate twice, and take two years to attain their full growth. 

 This is probably only true for a certain number. 



Larva. — Hiibnersays (Beit., ii., pt. 1, p. 21) that the larva is like 

 that of A. scabiosae, but is pale yellow (not golden-yellow, as in that 

 species), with two rows of twelve black spots in each. Borkhausen, how- 

 ever, states that he has found the larvse commonly, that they are 

 " of the size and form of the larva of S. peucedani, bluish- white or 

 pale yellow in colour ; the head small and black ; a row of black 

 dots on either side of the body, and beneath these a row of bright 

 yellow tubercles ; the spiracles are black ; the whole of the body covered 

 with white hairs." Boisduval also notes that the larva is much like 

 that of A. scabiosae. He describes it as pubescent, pale yellow in colour, 

 sometimes greenish, its head and true legs blackish, with two lateral 

 rows of twelve black spots on either side. Oberthiir diagnoses the larva 

 as green with a double dorsal row of black points, the green hue agree- 

 ing with Buckler's observations on larva? of the Irish form. Zeller, 

 Hering and Freyer all appear to be conversant with two forms (referred 

 to at length later) : (1) Whitish or bluish-white, with no distinct 

 dorsal stripe. (2). Orange-yellow, with dark dorsal stripe. The 

 former is supposed to produce the normal continental form, the latter 

 Zeller's heringi. Hering describes (Stett. Ent. Zeit., 1846, p. 235), the 

 larva of the latter as " dark citron-yellow ; at the end of each segment 



