ANTHROCERA (MESEMBEYNUS) PURPURALIS. 439 



are two black spots, which consequently form a double row of spots, 

 between which are numerous white hairs, placed on extremely fine 

 blackish warts. Above the legs is placed, in the middle of each seg- 

 ment, a small black spiracle, over and under which are white hairs, as 

 on the back." Milliere describes the larva in its fourth instar (i.e., in 

 spring, directly after its third moult, when it is very different from the 

 larva in its fifth instar) as being entirely of a deep green colour, 

 nearly black, except that the prothorax is greenish-grey, and the seg- 

 ments from 3-9 carry an oval spot of citron-yellow colour surmounted 

 by deep black. He considers the full-fed larva to be well figured by Bois- 

 duval, Eambur and Graslin. Buckler described the larvae directly after 

 they had finished hybernation as being " one-sixth of an inch in length, 

 in colour pinkish-brown all over, some faint traces of subdorsal rows of 

 black and yellow spots, the hairs arranged in little tufjts. After moulting 

 (March 14th), the colour was of a dull, blackish, rifle-green, the upper 

 spots showing like black velvet, and the lower row being distinct, and 

 of a primrose-yellow colour ; some of the hairs were black, others 

 whitish. The larvae became lighter as they increased in size, and on 

 April 1st moulted again, coming out almost black, but becoming paler as 

 they grew, until they were dark olive-green. They moulted again on 

 April 15th, and appeared darker than before. They were full-fed about 

 the end of April, and were then described as being of the usual fat, 

 soft, Anthrocerid figure, measuring three-fourths of an inch when in 

 motion, but only five-eighths when at rest. The colour all over was a 

 rich dark olive-green-; the dorsal line was dirty whitish, showing 

 broadest and palest at the commencement of each segment ; on each 

 side of it was a row of eleven black velvety round dots placed on the 

 front of each segment from the third (mesothoracic) to the 13 th 

 (9th abdominal). Below this was a row of eight yellow spots, com- 

 mencing on the fourth (metathoracic), and ending on the 11th 

 (7th abdominal) segment. The spots were placed on the hinder part 

 of each of these segments, in such a way that the yellow spot of each 

 came just below the black dot of the segment behind it. The spiracles 

 were black, the belly rather paler than the back, the usual dots were 

 not visible, but each segment bore, in a transverse row, eight fascicles 

 of stiff white hairs, five or six in a fascicle." For a summary of the 

 different descriptions of the larva of this species, Buckler (Larvae 

 Brit. Moths, ii., p. 12) should be consulted. 



Variation of larvae. — Borkhausen is the first author who notices 

 the variation of this larva, and he states that he found it commonly, 

 bluish-white and pale yellow forms being equally abundant. Hering, 

 in 1843, found whitish larvae of this species feeding on Pimpinella 

 saxifraga, in the fortification trenches at Stettin. A month later, in a 

 plantation, on dry sand, he found a number of orange-yellow larvaa on 

 Thymus serpyllum. (It was the moths from these latter that Zeller 

 named heringi.) Zeller himself had previously found whitish larvaa 

 on Pimpinella, and yellow larvaa on Thymus, in dry sandy places, but 

 he detected no difference in the resulting imagines. Freyer figured 

 (pi. 86) a yellow form of the larva as that of this species, and until 

 May 25th, 1843, had found no larvae of any other colour. On that 

 date he found, in a meadow near a wood, a number of the whitish 

 form of the larva, which is very like Hiibner's figure, and at the same 

 place some yellow larvae with them. They ate only Pimpinella, but 



