MALACOSOMA NEUSTKIA. 559 



the 8th and 9th abdominal segments ; there is also a large black spot 

 in this position on each thoracic segment (strongest on the pro-, and 

 weakest on the metathorax), rather more dorsal on the prothorax. 

 True legs black and shiny. Prolegs dark indigo-blue (Bacot). Linne 

 gave a very recognisable description of the adult larva, which reads: 

 " Larva subpilosa, lineis albis rubris creruleis. Verruca supra anum ; 

 hinc diversa a sequenti (castrensh) , cui maxime affinis statura et 

 natura " (Sys. Nat., 12th ed., p. 818). Fenn describes the adult larva 

 as having : The head rounded, greyish-blue in tint, with two striking 

 black spots one on each lobe ; the body cylindrical, hairy at the sides, 

 the dorsum smooth ; longitudinal stripes of different colours, dorsal 

 line white and conspicuous, a band on each side orange-red, margined 

 with blackish, subdorsal line dark-grey, a broad blue band on each 

 side above the spiracles, in the centre of which band appears the 

 orange, black-edged spiracular line ; the spiracles black, beneath them 

 a fringe of fulvous hairs ; two black opposite spots on the 2nd segment ; 

 the 12th segment with small, black, dorsal projection ; venter slate- 

 coloured with a row of diamond-shaped black spots down the centre ; 

 spiracular region irrorated with white ; each of the normal tubercles 

 emits a few black hairs. 



Variation of larva. — The larval markings are arranged in linear 

 series extending from the prothorax to the anus ; these lines are of 

 different colours, and are crossed by the greyish-black segmental incisions. 

 There are two chief forms of the larva, one in which red, the other in 

 which brown predominates. Buckler figures (plate 1., figs. 2, 2a) both 

 forms : 



(1) With the dorsal area red, with a fine white mediodorsal line, and a fine 

 black latero-dorsal line on each side running through the red ; a bluish supra- 

 spiracular, and a red spiracular line ; the ventral area bluish-grey. 



(2) Yellowish-brown, with a white medio-dorsal line ; dark brown latero-dorsal 

 lines, separated on each side by a well-marked black line ; a blue supraspiracular 

 line ; the area below the latter yellowish-brown. 



Pupation. — The larva? usually spin their cocoons within a curled 

 leaf, or in the fork of two or three twigs, but other places are frequently 

 chosen, and the overhanging ledges of fences and walls, cracks and 

 crannies in fences, or the bark of a tree, are places in which we have 

 observed them. Others report the cocoons as : Often placed behind, 

 or woven among, the living leaves of a tree, or under ledges, or in 

 crannies of the bark (E. S. Harrison), spun up among the leaves of 

 the food-plant frequently in a single leaf (Fenn), to be found at the 

 base of stems of whitethorn, or spun up in dead leaves, or upon fences 

 near food-plant (Grover), placed under copings on walls, or on twigs, 

 whilst one was found in a leaf of rhubarb, and another in a mulberry 

 leaf (Hancock), found in all sorts of situations, very frequently under 

 the cross-pieces of posts and fences (Whittle), placed in a curled leaf, 

 or on the bark of a twig, branch, or trunk, or on some neighbouring 

 fence, wall, or other convenient place, always in a chink or corner and 

 the less conspicuous, as it is not very unlike the egg-covering of a large 

 spider (Barrett), spins up on a fence, railing, tree-trunk, stone wall, or 

 spins together the leaves of its food-plant (Newman), many under the 

 coping of rather high walls at Portslade and Hythe (Colthrup), usually 

 placed among the food-plant (Dollman), found under the ledges of 

 fences at Hoddesdon (Bayne), under copings of walls at varying heights 

 from the ground, as a rule as high as possible (Phillips), under the 



