98 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



red-brown fur of that of viburni, yet one or two curiously showed a 

 tendency to the dusky-coloured fur characteristic of the larva of 

 English quercus. There were, however, no truly doubtful forms, 

 as those most approaching the English larval type were, in reality, 

 but little divergent from the larva of meridionalis, and were very 

 much nearer the latter than the former (January 17th, 1897). Of 

 ten larvae of this batch that had reached maturity by February 

 20th, 1897, six were of the viburni, and four of the ?neridionalis, 

 larval form, except that the latter presented a distinct dusky tinge 

 to what should otherwise have been a pure white dorsal fur. [It 

 is doubtful whether dirt had not something to do with this latter 

 peculiarity] (Bacot). 



Pupation.— The fullfed larva usually spins its cocoon in a 

 fork of two or more small branches, or suspends it among the twigs 

 of its foodplant, or encloses it between two or more leaves. Harrison 

 notes it as spun among small branches of the foodplant in a 

 breeding-cage, or placed in a corner either on the floor or roof 

 of the cage. Larvae were observed spinning up in the crevices of Castle 

 Rock, Lynton, June 22nd, 1899 (Bartlett). Lambillion says that, 

 in Belgium, the cocoons are found in hedges, cracks of walls, and under 

 moss ; and de Selys-Longchamps observes that they are fixed between 

 the branches of trees. Many of those of var. callunae are hidden low 

 down among the roots of heather on the moors that this particular form 

 loves so well. The cocoons of many of those that go over the winter 

 in the midlands as pupae may be found among the dead leaves 

 at the bottom of hedges, usually spun up in leaves that have fallen in 

 the autumn, whilst others still remain attached to a dead leaf or two 

 that have been fastened to the twigs by a loose spinning of silk. Tunaley 

 notes (Ent. Rec, viii., pp. 167 — 168) that, near Derby, he obtained many 

 cocoons by sifting, through the fingers, the dead leaves accumulated 

 in the forked branches at the bottom of a hawthorn hedge, during 

 the winter. Pickett discovered six cocoons in August, 1900, attached 

 to dry bramble leaves, on the Dover cliffs, where the bramble was 

 growing very flat and straggling; the cocoons looked very like the 

 dry leaves. Once the place is selected, the spinning of the cocoon 

 is a short but exceedingly interesting occupation, splendidly 

 described by Reaumur (Memoires, i., pp. 516 — 517). After remarking 

 on the disproportion between the large size of the larva and the cocoon 

 it spins, he enters into details of the making of the cocoon, which 

 he describes as an elongated ellipsoid in shape, almost cylindrical, 

 with the ends rounded. To spin a cocoon of this shape, the larva 

 holds its body bent in different ways at different times, but always 

 " raccourci, au point d'avoir pre'cisement, dans le sens ou il est le 

 plus long, une longueur egale a celle du plus grand diametre interieur 

 de la coque, et contourne de maniere que les deux parties qui sont aux 

 bouts de la plus grande longueur, ont toOjours une courbure 

 semblable a celle que doivent prendre les deux bouts de la coque. 

 Asses souvent la chenille est pliee en S. Sa tete et son derriere sont 

 quelquefois presque vis-a-vis Tun de l'autre, et vis-a-vis le milieu du 

 corps, mais place's de differents cote's ; quelquefois la tete est place'e 

 plus pres du milieu du corps que ne Test la queue. Les deux portions 

 du corps, qui representent celles ou l'S s'arrondit, ou elle a ex- 

 terieurement deux convexites, sont les moules des bouts de la coque. 



