208 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



lens.] When first laid dull green, the white markings scarcely 

 defined, the eggs evidently soft and damp (Burrows). In 

 shape a short, rounded oval, about i - 5mm. — r6mm. in length, 

 i*3mm. in width, and i'2mm. in thickness ; slightly depressed 

 on upper side, also slightly at micropyle, which appears to 

 be nearer the shoulder than centrally at end of egg ; surface 

 smooth, with a slight polygonal pattern outlined in minute 

 raised points ; colour dull grey or drab, banded curiously with 

 opaque porcelain-white ; there is a ring of this white on the side 

 surrounding the depression, and another similar, roughly oval, 

 ring or band on the opposite or resting side ; a transverse stripe across 

 one edge, and two longitudinal stripes along the opposite edge ; 

 these continue to the ends and curve round and join without 

 meeting the transverse stripe on the opposite edge; a small 

 ring round the micropyle and its nadir joining the parallel longi- 

 tudinal bands as they narrow before torming the loop (Bacot, 

 July 29th, 1900). The eggs are described by Reaumur as being like 

 "petites boules, dont la couleur dominante est un bleu tel que celui 

 qui a ete un peu trop epargne sur la fayence. Deux bouts oppose's 

 sont d'un brun noir, et deux ou trois cercles du meme brim paralleles 

 entr'eux, et paralleles a ces bouts, entourent l'ceuf, et le rendent 

 un tres-joli ceuf, qui semble etre de fayence." Esper figures the egg 

 {Schmett. Eur., vol. hi., pi. lxxix., fig. 3) both of natural size and 

 magnified. 



Habits of larva. — The young larvae rest on the twigs of the 

 foodplant, spin considerable silk, and seem to prefer to live in 

 little groups of four or five, indicating a gregarious tendency. They 

 crawl backward, wriggle much if disturbed and drop freely by a thread, 

 both the backward-moving habit and the ability to suspend themselves 

 are in evidence until the larvae have reached the third moult (Bacot) ; 

 the larvae feed up very slowly until the end of October, moulting 

 three times, and are then about an inch in length, when they fix them- 

 selves to the shoots of their foodplant, close to the ground for hyber- 

 nation, and commence to feed again in spring as soon as the young 

 leaves expand (MoncreafT) ; they hybernate so closely attached to 

 stems of blackthorn as to appear like excrescences on the bark 

 which they so exactly resemble as to deceive even the most practised 

 eye (Grapes) ; winter well along the dry leaves of the foodplant 

 (Mera) ; whilst Bowles notes that in " the middle of March the larvae 

 are still sprawling on the naked stems of plum and sallow 

 and looking uncommonly like them too ; when touched, they 

 show their orange spots between the segments, which are now con- 

 spicuous against the dull dead-brown of their bodies ; later on, when 

 full grown and grey, the blue in these spots predominates. Is the 

 shining of them likely to frighten a bird, who thought that that 

 nice piece of rotten wood was good for building a nest ? Their 

 protective coloration is marvellous, but when the larva is touched 

 and it shows off these intersegmental glories it becomes most con- 

 spicuous." Riihl observes that in the Zurich district, the larva hyber- 

 nates in the branch forks of the fruit-trees and sloe-bushes. The 

 larvae appear much given to the habit of biting one another (Griffiths); 

 the larvae hide during the day, low down on the bushes, lying very close 

 to the stem and so closely assimilating to the colour of the latter as al- 



