184 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



as the creature grew, and the final dress was assumed." He 

 then describes this same larva, when mature, as follows : " Length, 

 when stretched out, two inches and seven-eighths. The back and 

 sides of deep bronzy olive-green, but below the spiracles and on 

 the ventral surface the colour is a smoky deep purplish-pink ; 

 although the boundary is clearly defined, yet a gleam of the one 

 colour tinges almost imperceptibly the other, both above and 

 below. There is no subdorsal line, but, in its place, a row of 

 fourteen somewhat roundish spots ; four of those on the thoracic 

 segments are small, the others large, the hinder one somewhat 

 pear-shaped, pale golden-yellow in colour, and set in transverse ovals 

 of deep black, which melt into the ground-colour ; the spiracles yellow, 

 outlined with black, and surrounded by a cloud of darker olive than the 

 ground-colour ; a few small yellow specks are sprinkled along the sides. 

 One can well make out a thin dorsal stripe of deep ochreous-olive, 

 wide at the beginning of each segment, looking as if it were show- 

 ing dimly through the surface from a depth below. The head is 

 purplish-pink, the mouth black, with a streak of pale yellow above 

 it, and yellow bases to the papillae, and just above them is a narrow 

 circumferent band of black. The plate on the second segment, the 

 anal flap, and the prolegs are dark pinkish-red; the anterior legs 

 black, the ventral prolegs purplish-pink, with an outward bar of 

 black near their extremities ; the horn is semi-translucent and blood- 

 red ; the whole surface of the skin, excepting on the thoracic seg- 

 ments, is now brilliantly polished, and resplendent with the play 

 of light at every movement." Taking the above as the type, his 

 larvae divided into two other main sections as to ground-colour — 

 the pale olive and the black, and each of these (as well also as 

 the dark olive type) furnished a further variation in points of detail. 

 These worked out as follows : 



i. Neither a light nor a dark olive-green, but between them; the large 

 yellow spots developed into pear shapes, the small end of each projecting forwards as 

 a spot on the segment in advance. 



2. Dark reddish-brown, with just a tinge of olive, and with the addition to the 

 usual obscure dim dorsal line of a bright pale ochreous mark at the beginning of each 

 segment, terminating at the end of the broad first subdivision, which appears like a 

 black band ; the bright yellow subdorsal spots as before. 



3. The ground-colour of the back and sides a pale brownish ochreous-olive; 

 the subdorsal pale primrose-yellow spots and the spiracles environed with black ; the 

 belly and prolegs rose-pink. 



4. A deep jet black on the anterior segments, bluish-black on the others ; the 

 head, thoracic plate, and anal extremities of very dark purplish-red ; the subdorsal 

 spots of a dirty and dingy yellowish-drab tint, with their centres more or less filled 

 up with blackish-brown, in one or two instances wholly obliterated. 



5. Ground -colour entirely bluish-black, the deepest tinge of purplish-red on 

 the head, the plate behind, and the anal flap, which, with the subdorsal spots, the 

 spiracles, and an extensive irroration of small dots, are all of the purest pale golden- 

 yellow, the black ground being left unbroken as a band across the back from one 

 subdorsal spot to the other. 



Buckler then states that, in every instance, the skin, after the last 

 moult, was black for a day or two, as previously mentioned; but, 

 at this time, one may judge of the colour the larva will eventually 

 assume by the tint of the head, thoracic plate, and anal extremities ; 

 these parts, if then quite black, indicate that the ground-colour will 

 be black to the end of its career ; but if they are of deep purplish- 

 red, the larva will turn to a dark olive or brown ; or should they 



