286 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



some hours the original light green ground-colour becomes darker, 

 and, at the same time, a sharp, greenish-white subdorsal line appears, 

 together with a parallel supraspiracular line ; the dorsal line is 

 absent ; the head is light green, with two narrow blackish-brown 

 lines surrounding the clypeus ; the horn and thoracic legs black ; 

 claspers reddish-green; length I2mm.-i3mm. (fig. 54). The second 

 moult takes place after another 4 days. Third ins tar : Neither 

 colour nor marking is affected by the second moult ; only the horn, 

 now no longer forked *, becomes brownish with a black tip. 

 The caterpillars are now, as before, admirably adapted to the 

 pine-needles, on which they feed by day, and from which they 

 can only be distinguished with difficulty. Fourth instar : The 

 third moult also brings no essential change, the ground-colour 

 and marking remain the same, only the spiracles, which were 

 formerly dull yellowish, are now of a vivid brick-red. The horn 

 becomes yellowish-red at the base. Fifth instar : The marking 

 is only completely changed in the fifth and last stage. A broad 

 reddish-brown dorsal line replaces the subdorsal, more or less 

 completely. The supraspiracular line also becomes broken up 

 into numerous short lengths, whilst the green ground-colour in 

 some specimens becomes more or less replaced by a brownish 

 shade extending from the back to the sides. Horn black, the 

 upper part of the 1st segment with a corneous plate, similar to 

 that of the Deilephila larvae. The entire change of the marking 

 from the 4th to the 5th stage depends upon the fact that the 

 young larvae resemble the needles of the pine, whilst the adults 

 are adapted to the branches. The ontogeny of this species makes 

 us acquainted with three different forms of marking : (1) Simple 

 coloration without marking. (2) A marking composed of three 

 pairs of parallel longitudinal lines. (3) A complicated marking, 

 arising from the breaking up of the last and the addition of a darker 

 dorsal line (Weismann). 



Cocoon. — The larvae go some little distance below the surface 

 of the earth and form an earthen cocoon in which to pupate. 

 They prefer to go into the ground near the trunk of a tree to 

 form their puparia (Bartel). The pupae are readily found at the 

 roots of pines under the moss (Ratzeburg). The cocoons are made at 

 the foot of trees of Finns sytvestris, at a depth of about 3ms., in 

 the Namur district (Lambillion). 



Pupa. — This pupa is not easily distinguishable, except by its 

 size, from that of Sphinx ligustri, and, as a matter of fact, I had 

 a pupa of S. ligustri, correctly named, which happened to be a 

 very small specimen, and it took me some little time to satisfy 



* Poulton writes (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1886, p. 143): " In the spring of 

 the present year, 1886, 1 had the opportunity of examining three well-preserved speci- 

 mens of the larvae of this species in Lord Walsingham's collection. Two of the larvae 

 appeared to be mature, and, at any rate, were in the last stage, but, in all three, 

 the horn was strongly forked. ... It is thus clear that Weismann was 

 mistaken in thinking that the character disappeared at the 3rd stage. In H. 

 pinastri, the feature is not only more prominent, but lasts for a longer period 

 than in any other Sphingid larva yet described." It would be well to know 

 whether the larva of this species ever docs lose its horn at the 3rd stage as 

 described by Weismann, or whether Weismami's descriptions are generally loose 

 and unreliable. Bacot notes having two adult larvae, both showing the forked 

 character of the horn, which was much more distinct, however, in the 4th instar. 



