EVERES ARGIADES. 79 



ably by the side of a larva of Colias kyale of the same size, on the 

 same leaf ; as the larva3 grew, they showed a great liking for 

 the flower-buds, between which they lived, partly demolishing 

 the young leaves, and skeletonising the larger ones. The third and 

 fourth moults each take place after five to six days, the larva becoming 

 rapidly larger, and eating now only the flowers and fruit; the young- 

 fruit it demolishes entirely, boring holes in the older pods, and eating 

 out the seeds ; its instinct in selecting the places where the seeds are, 

 is remarkable ; it selects exactly the spot in the hard Lotus pod, 

 beneath which is the seed, boring where a slight swelling; on the 

 surface of the pod betrays the presence of the seeds ; here it usually 

 makes a hole at the suture through which it can thrust its head, and 

 that only, the body remaining outside ; it fastens itself so closely with 

 the anterior of the prothorax, that it almost appears as if the larva 

 adheres by suction, and, even when fullgrown, it is difficult to discover 

 on the green leaves, or among the flowers, and Zeller says that he always 

 had to search a long time before he could find them on the flowers iu his 

 breeding-pots. The mode of crawling is slow and snail-like. At the end 

 of August, most of the larvae ceased to feed, and were now dirty-reddish, 

 although slightly greenish on the anterior segments, with very faded, 

 broken, oblique, whitish, lateral stripes ; they crawled about restlessly 

 until they discovered a withered leaf, which suited them, and into 

 which they crept. For some years the larvae were thus brought to 

 hybernation, but failed to live over the winter, except one which lived 

 on until April, but then failed to pupate. In 1847, however, Zeller 

 was more successful. He states that, on this occasion, he placed the 

 eggs on some flowering shoots of Medicago falcata, standing in a glass 

 of water, but, when the larvae were half grown, he shook them off, 

 placing them on a piece of turf in a flower-pot, on which lay some 

 young pea-pods which were purposely opened some way along the 

 suture. The larvae either bored into these through the shell, or they 

 made use of the opening as an entrance to the unripe peas. These 

 offered them so rich and welcome a nourishment, as they certainly never 

 find in nature ; therefore, if the large summer form of amyntas could 

 have been produced from the larvae, the food-condition was here. The 

 larvae scarcely came out of the pods again ; some rested with nearly 

 the whole body in the peas ; their excrement lost its usual consistence, 

 and became very abundant, almost fluid and pale green, so that he 

 despaired of rearing the larvae. However, they became full fed at the 

 end of August, took on the brownish-red coloration of the hybernating 

 form, and crept into the nooks and angles of some crumpled paper 

 placed for them to winter in, and there remained. Zeller covered the 

 pot with gauze, placed it in the window, and here the larvae remained 

 all the winter, where they had to withstand at least 15° of cold. In 

 the spring, some of the larvae had died, the rest, however, were in good 

 health, and still rested on the few white threads that they had spun 

 as a hybernating-mat, a few stronger threads being placed perpendicu- 

 larly before and behind them. At the beginning of April they became 

 active, and crawded out of the paper, and at once prepared for pupation. 

 Laplace states that, at Hamburg, the larva hybernates from August 

 to May, whilst, in Silesia, Wocke notes it as leaving its hybernac- 

 ulum in April. Pabst observes that, at Chemnitz, the larva prefers 

 to sit on the capsules of Lotus comic ulat us, when feeding, and 



