ANTHROCERA LONICER^!. 47 S 



regular pattern by which the reticulation may be characterised. The 

 micropylar area forms a rather projecting area at the non-transparent 

 pole of the egg. It is very thickly pitted, and centrally contains a 

 small depression which forms the micropyle proper, and which is not, 

 in general appearance, very different from the ordinary surface of 

 the egg. [Eggs received from Mr. Ovenden, on July 12th, 1897, 

 described under a two-thirds lens the same day.] 



Habits of larva. — The newly-hatched larva usually feeds up much 

 more rapidly than its congeners, and, by the end of September, when 

 it prepares to hybernate, is already in its fourth instar, and of moderate 

 size, at least twice as large as the hybernating larvae of A. filipendulae 

 and A. viciae. In early spring it commences to feed again, and 

 whilst most of the larvae make good progress, and become full-fed 

 towards the end of May, others do not moult at all, but, remaining 

 very small, become dormant in early summer, and pass the whole 

 summer and another winter in this condition, feeding up in due course 

 the following spring. The cocoon is spun on a grass culm, flower-stalk, 

 twig of a tree, or similar object. We have seen them abundantly on 

 ash saplings at a height of from 10 to 12 feet from the ground. 



Larva. — The newly -hatched larva is of the shape of the adult, short, 

 stout, with the segmental incisions very marked ; it tapers rapidly at 

 both ends. The head is black, shiny, and appears very small, 

 although this is largely due to its being partly retractile within the 

 prothorax. The body is pale yellowish with a double row of brown 

 blotches, one blotch being placed on either side of the medio- 

 dorsal line on each segment. The skin itself is covered with a fine 

 coat of minute black spicules. The tubercles are small, in comparison 

 with the hairs which rise from them, but are distinct, each forming 

 a blunt cone, shiny, with a chitinous appearance. The tubercles each 

 give rise to one very large, stout, curved, thorny hair. Dorsally, 

 tubercles i and ii are placed as anterior and posterior trapezoidals, not 

 only on abdominal, but also on the 2nd and 3rd thoracic segments. 

 There are a supraspiracular (iii) tubercle and two subspiracular (iv and 

 v) tubercles, v being almost vertically below iv. The anterior trapezoi- 

 dals bear black hairs, the posterior white ; the supraspiracular bears 

 black, and both subspiraculars white, hairs. There are some secondary 

 hairs on the thoracic segments, inconspicuous on the prothorax, 

 owing to the retraction of the head. In the first instar the hooks 

 on the prolegs have the appearance of being on the posterior face of 

 the proleg, and are only 3 (?) in number. In the second instar the larva 

 tapers rather more from the thorax to the abdomen. It is darker as a 

 whole, and this darkening is due to the enlargement of the dark dorsal 

 blotches into broad longitudinal dorsal bands, darkest on the posterior 

 portion of each segment ; the bands are well separated by a broad medio- 

 dorsal stripe of the ground colour. The tubercles are very different in 

 their arrangement ; the trapezoidals, as such, are practically lost, the 

 anterior and posterior on each side being united into a large 

 wart, bearing about six tuberculate hairs. There is now, also, 

 a dark supraspiracular band on either side, and this includes the 

 supraspiracular tubercles, which have now become, on each seg- 

 ment, a complex structure bearing five tuberculate hairs, whilst 

 below the spiracles, tubercles iv and v are united into a common 

 mass, also bearing five tuberculate hairs, and, below this again the 



