104 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



Europe they are usually to be found on the beautiful flowering Cytisi 

 that abound there. Mathew says that he has taken the larvae 

 commonly in July, feeding on broom, and he states that, towards 

 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon, they crawl up to feed on the tips of the 

 young shoots, and are then easily seen, but he adds that bramble 

 appears to be their chief food in most places. Barrett swept the larvae 

 very freely from Genista tinctoria, on June 25th, 1868, and following 

 days, near Haslemere ; some were nearly fullfed, others quite small ; 

 in confinement they fed up very freely on the blossoms. Some of 

 these larvae were compared with others obtained on broom at the same 

 time by Harwood, near Colchester, and it was observed that the larvae 

 from the Genista were less brilliant in their markings than those from 

 broom, otherwise they were precisely similar. Hellins further notes 

 that several larvae found between August 7th-21st, 1877, feeding on 

 flowers of Ulex nanus, at Chagford, differed slightly from others 

 feeding on Genista tinctoria and Cytisus scoparias, in that the former 

 had the head of a darker brown, the dorsal stripe darker, and the 

 markings on the sides of a paler (almost whitish) yellow. Stange 

 states that, much to his astonishment, he once found a larva on 

 dock (Rum ex), a very strange foodplant for this species, and that he 

 obtained the butterfly from it next spring. Martin notes (Eni. Zeits. 

 Guben, x., p. 68) that, in the middle of June, 1895, on the border 

 of a wood, he found a half-grown Theclid larva sitting on a ripe 

 strawberry and eating it; in confinement, it ate only the ripest fruit of 

 strawberry, and refused leaves and unripe fruit, and, on this strange 

 food, matured and pupated in due course. Miihlig, Koch, and others, 

 have oberved that, when short of food, the larva of C. rubi becomes 

 cannibalistic and eats other larvae of its own species. 



Larva. — First instar (newly-hatched) : The newly-hatched larva is 

 a little grey atom, fully 1mm. long when stretched, and broad for its- 

 length ; the head not quite as broad as the body. The body of fairly 

 equal size from the prothorax to the 8th abdominal segment ; there is 

 very little trace of dorsal ridges, a transverse section being fairly 

 rounded above. The larva looks remarkably hairy, with abundant 

 black hairs as long as the w T idth of the larva ; seen endways, these 

 hairs fall into certain planes ; dorsally, there is first an upright set, 

 then one inclined a little outwards ; then a shorter set, rather out- 

 wards curled (? iii) ; then a lateral set (? iv and v), and apparently a 

 set below these. The head is diamond-shaped ; the prothoracic plate 

 and anal plate also are black (April 26th, 1906). Four days later 

 many of the larvae had acquired the red back, with white subdorsal 

 line (April, 30th, 1906). The head is deep brown ; the jaws six-toothed; 

 a few fine hairs around the mouth (about 0*05mm. long), two on each 

 side of clypeus at margins, one between clypeus and eyes, another 

 beyond eyes, a longish one (0-06mm.) on cranium, one-third of the 

 way up clypeal margin ; other points higher up appear to be without 

 hairs, and the bulk of the cranium is smooth ; the labrum has two hairs on 

 it, one on each side, and four on each lateral lappet, directed inwards ; 

 there are two on the basal piece of the maxillae, but, otherwise, labium 

 and maxillae have no hairs, except at the ends of their palpi. There is a 

 central eyespot and five ocelli in a regular semicircle, all of uniform 

 size. The prothorax has a plate, broad in middle, narrowing to a point 

 at the lateral corners ; each side carries four long hairs, one short hair, 



