110 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



uniform green, and, in some varieties, with different admixtures of 

 yellow. Ventrally on the two segments behind the last pair of ventral 

 prolegs are four bright white shining spots. In the colour and 

 markings the following varieties have been observed : 



1. Bright green in tint ; a rather broad, dark green dorsal stripe, on each side 

 two of finer form edged with yellowish ; the first and last segments of a rather dark 

 green colour ; the fine terminal points have a reddish tint when examined under a 

 lens. On Alopecurus pratensis, L. [pi. xcvii. (supp. xii.), fig. 5]. 



2. Ground colour sea-green, with many very fine alternate dark and light 

 stripes (these markings make it very similar to the larva of P. eg e via). On Phleum 

 nodosum, L. Produced an exactly similar butterfly to 1 [pi. xcvii. (supp. xii.), 

 fig. 7]. 



3. With a citron-yellow lateral stripe, and very broad dark green stripes. 

 Larva on Poa rigida, L. [pi. xcvii. (supp. xii.), fig. 8] . 



Foodplants. — Holcus lanatus (Fletcher), Brachypodium sylvaticum 

 (Hellins), Festuca (Lambillion), Air a montana (Schiffermuller), Pipta- 

 therum multifiorum (Milliere), Alopecurus pratensis, L., Poa eragrostis, 

 L., Poa rigida, L., Phleum nodosum, L. (Esper). 



Puparium. — The fullfed larva spins together, by means of a coarse 

 reticulation of white silk, two or sometimes three blades of grass, 

 joining longitudinally, by lacing or spinning with white silk, the edges, 

 more or less closely to each other, and thus the larva becomes completely 

 hidden (the earliest spun up on June 18th, the latest about June 25th, 

 1882). This outside spinning forms, as it were, a lining to the oblong 

 puparium, about l|-ins. long, in which pupation takes place (Buckler). 

 The larva pupates in June and July within a slight, laced, spinning 

 among the grass, the pupa being suspended at the anal end and by the 

 body by threads (Scriba teste Borkhausen). The long and roomy 

 puparium is made of grass blades spun together by means of whitish 

 silk with wide mesh. The larva excretes from the white ventral spots 

 a meal-like matter, which it mixes with the silk of the puparium (Esper). 

 The pupa is about half-an-inch in length and is held in position in the 

 puparium by a silken thread which is placed just under the head, 

 and not round the waist; a larva pupated July 5th, 1869, at Painswick, 

 and the imago appeared on July 17th (Watkins) ; there is, however, 

 some variation in the length of the pupal stage, Snellen noting it as 

 three weeks, and Borkhausen and Esper as 14 days. 



Pupa. — About 17"75mm. in length, very similar in form to that of 

 Thymelicusacteon, having the end of the trunk lying free from the abdomen, 

 and held in position, head upward, by an oblique cincture behind the 

 thorax, and the anal tip secured by a fan-like spread of fine hooks at 

 the extremity fixed in the silk lining, but the head has the frontal 

 tapering beak shorter and more bluntly pointed; the colour of the same 1 

 light green as that of the larva, of which the paler linos can still be 

 faintly traced (Buckler). Two days before emergence, the pupa com- 

 mences to change colour, beginning at the eyes, and continuing till a 

 darkish slaty shade had spread all over it (Watkins). Of a yellowish- 

 green colour; elongate in form, with narrow head and anal point; 

 from termination of wings, a pair brown, slender, maxillary sheath is 

 continued to the extremity of the body (Scriba teste Borkhausen). Of 

 considerable length compared with breadth : usually yellow in colour, 

 but with som(> varieties green ; the elongated (but bluntly-pointed) 

 anterior part and the hindmost abdominal segments darker green; also 

 a dark given mediodorsal line. A long maxilla-ease, similar to that of 



