EUMORPHA ELPENOR 67 



Habits of larva. — The most remarkable larval habit seems 

 to me to be the rapidity with which it reaches maturity — 16 days 

 from egg to the last stadium; it spends, however, a week or ten 

 days in this stage, even then its whole larval period is less than 

 a month (Bacot). Of this Garbowski observes that the larvae are, 

 in Galicia, especially fond of Ampelopsis quinquefolia, on which 

 they are more easily and most rapidly reared, the first moult taking 

 place on the 3rd day, and the going to earth occurring on the 1 8th 

 day, after hatching. The young larvae may be found by careful 

 searching, wherever, by the sides of ditches and rivers, the food- 

 plants show signs of being eaten ; they appear to feed by day, 

 and do not, when they get older, make any attempt to hide except 

 when moulting, when they always appear to wander from the 

 foodplant ; often the search of a well-eaten plant has proved unsuccess- 

 ful, when, two or three days later, a larva that could not possibly 

 have been overlooked has been found on the very plant ; they 

 do sometimes, however, moult on the foodplant, and I have seen 

 a cast skin adhering to a stalk of Galium palustre. One egg, found 

 in 1 90 1 , hatched July 1 6th, the larva underwent its last moult on August 

 4th, was fullfed and spun its cocoon on August 14th, but did not 

 change to pupa till August 21st. At the time of moulting the 

 larva has all the appearance of dying, one that I observed care- 

 fully was lying for a time on its side quite motionless, the 

 skin turning a whitish colour, and a white line appearing along 

 the sides ; the skin broke behind the head, splitting round 

 the latter, and enabling the larva to draw out its true legs ; the 

 larva then literally walked out of the old skin, which immediately 

 shrivelled up (Ransom). The larvae, when young, are well-hidden 

 away in the tufts of the foodplant, but when large they often lie 

 out exposed, and are readily seen ; if you find one larva on a 

 plant, you usually find another, sometimes two more, on the same 

 plant (Holland). The fullgrown larva rests on the twigs of Fuchsia, 

 stretched at its full length, and holding by the third pair of legs 

 as well as by the ventral and anal claspers ; the head is bent under, 

 touching the twig, but the " Sphinx " attitude is not assumed ; viewed 

 from the front the resemblance to a pig's head is very striking, 

 the head of the larva representing the flattened disk of the pig's 

 snout, and two ocellated spots on the 4th segment the pig's eyes 

 (Newman). It is well-known that the larva usually inhabits marshy 

 places, and hence its foodplants grow by, or even in, the water. 

 The larvae may be found, in such places, stretched at length 

 on Galium palustre in the day, and also with a lantern feeding 

 voraciously at night (Tutt)*. Albin remarks that there is " something in 

 this caterpillar very remarkable, viz., its dexterity in swimming, 

 for, commonly feeding in or near the water, if, at any time, it 

 happens to fall in, it turns on its back, and swims with its head 

 and tail turned together, till it gets hold of some part of the plant, 

 by which it helps itself up again." Hellins remarks that this 

 proceeding is more like floating, unless there is a " movement to 



* These observations are not quite in consonance with the observations of 

 Weismann [postea, p. 74), who finds the younger larvae well up on the plants, the 

 older low down upon or near the ground. 



