140 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



belts previous to its last moult and the rich red-brown hairy adult 

 larva with black intersegmental belts is very striking (vide., Buckler, 

 Lanwe, &c, vol. hi., pi. xlvi., figs. 4-40). The adult larva is described 

 by Bacot as follows : Head : tending to be trapezoidal in shape, 

 slightly notched at crown; surface dull; blue-black in colour, very 

 hairy; mouthparts shiny black; antennae small; median suture 

 of head brown. Body : tapers somewhat from 1st abdominal segment 

 to head, and very slightly from 4th abdominal to anus which is 

 blunt ; true legs shiny black ; ground colour of body velvety-black, 

 exceedingly hairy especially on dorsal area, the hairs of two kinds — 

 (1) A dense fur-like coat of urticating spindle-shaped hairs covering 

 dorsal, and greater part of subdorsal, areas from prothorax to anal 

 segment, the hairs bright (but dark) coppery-red in colour. (2) Fine, 

 soft, simple, tapering hairs of different lengths, and varied in colour ; 

 many very long, especially on dorsum, where there is a distinct median 

 line or ridge of long, bright, rich brown, closely-set hairs ; the ridge 

 most conspicuous on middle abdominal segments ; below dorsal fur 

 and just above spiracles is a series of small tufts of short white 

 hairs, forming with the more scattered and darker lateral hairs a 

 grey lateral fringe; beneath the spiracles the hairs much more 

 sparsely scattered, white or brown in colour; the ventral area also 

 sparsely haired ; the short dorsal (urticating) hairs absent on 

 intersegmental areas, where the velvety-black skin is in fine contrast 

 to the coppery-red fur ; also four narrow intersegmental black streaks 

 across dorsum showing lines of division between the five subsegments ; 

 a series of distinct dark dashes (caused by absence of dorsal fur) 

 present on either side and extending upwards from edge of dorsal fur 

 for about i^mm., these dashes really a widening of the bare 

 intersubsegmental areas (at third subdivision) to almost width of 

 ordinary intersegmental area (Bacot, in lilt.). Newman describes the 

 larva as : Head narrower than prothorax, the width of which is 

 increased by a fleshy protuberance on each side of the head ; Math 

 this exception the body is uniformly cylindrical and clothed 

 throughout with downy hairs. The colour until the last change 

 of skin is intense velvety-black, with a yellow band on both the 

 anterior and posterior margins of the pro- and mesothorax, and 

 on the posterior margin only of the remaining segments except 

 the 8th and 9th abdominals, and these bands are rendered peculiarly 

 vivid by contrast with the black ground colour : these yellow bands 

 are dorsal only, scarcely extending halfway down the side ; each 

 of them is slightly interrupted in the middle. In the last stadium 

 these yellow bands are entirely lost and the hairs on the back 

 are of a golden -brown colour. Fenri describes the larva as: 

 Head round, velvety-black, and hairy ; body long, cylindrical and 

 densely hairy (except at the incisions), the hair long and soft ; 

 belly flattened ; when full-fed, black on the sides and at the incisions ; 

 the back broadly tawny, interrupted on the sides by the dark 

 ground-colour ; dorsal hairs dark tawny ; lateral hairs grey or black 

 tipped with whitish ; legs black ; belly and prolegs velvety-black ; 

 sometimes with inconspicuous dull orange subdorsal spots at the 

 incisions [in lift., September 5th, 1875). 



Variation of larva. — Briggs notes that on Septembe 8th-9th, 

 j86o, at Duntroon, Argyllshire, he found a brood of larvae much 



