210 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



green, with yellow and brown along the dorsal edges, rather bright on 

 the serrations, elsewhere hardly visible ; spiracles golden-brown. The 

 greater part of the development of this shortened angular form takes 

 about seven hours, for a larva that completed fixing itself about 

 10 a.m., June 3rd, 1907, had, at 5 p.m., assumed this form noted as 

 characteristic of the suspended larva (Chapman). 



Foodplants. — Prunus domestica (Linne), P. spinosa (Ochsenheimer), 

 P. padus (Peyerimhoff), Rhamnus frangula (Stange). Amygdalus nana 

 cum flore pleno (Richter), feed well on apricot (Brunn), plum preferred 

 to sloe in Bavaria (Schmid). [Kaltenbach notes {Insektenfeinde, p. 156) 

 that Wilde mentions Rhamnus catharticus as a foodplant, but Gillmer 

 says this is not so, for Wilde notes only, in his Besch. d. Pflanz., 

 pp. 17-18, that pruni lives on Primus spinosa and P. domestica. Kalten- 

 bach also notes that Koch says that it lives on " sloe" and "almond." 

 Gillmer points out that what Koch says (Schmett. Sudwestl. Deutschl., 

 1856, p. 34) is, that it lives on "sloe "and "plum. "J Sloe, birch (Sand). 



[Parasite. — Peri-lit us scutellator, Nees, is noted by Mosley. This 

 is given by Bignell, in Buckler's Larvae, etc., i., p. 200, for Edwardsia 

 w- album, and is probably an error of copying.] 



Puparium. — The fullfed larva spins a white silken pad on a 

 leaf of blackthorn, and to this it attaches its anal claspers ; it 

 also spins a slender white girth that passes round the centre of 

 the metathorax. In this position it pupates, the girth at this 

 period slipping back to the 1st abdominal segment. Our note 

 says that, in the specimen observed, the pupa did not get rid of 

 the cast larval skin (Tutt). Russell says (Ent. Rec, viii., p. 104): 

 " The pupae I found were (except in two instances) attached to the 

 front of a blackthorn leaf, and plainly visible, forming, however, an 

 excellent imitation of a bird's dropping. In the two exceptions 

 mentioned, the pupae were attached to twigs." Pearson writes (in 

 litt.) : " The larva itself, in full plumage, is a capital imitation of the 

 sloe leaf on which it feeds, the segments giving the serrations of the 

 leaf ; when ready to pupate, however, the larva generally climbs to the 

 upper part of the twig, the young growth of which is purple, and, 

 before pupating, the larva changes from green to a dull purple, which 

 closely matches the leaf ; the pupa, however, is usually fixed on the 

 upper surface of a leaf, and, being brown and white, closely resembles 

 a bird's-dropping, for which it might easily be passed over." A 

 favourite place for pupation is on a twig of last year, it may be lower, or 

 again even upon a leaf. Larvae, pupating in captivity, from specimens 

 received from Mr. Kaye, selected a woody stem of the previous year, 

 sometimes, however, a larva selected a leaf, and, one supposes, 

 would sometimes have chosen a thicker stem had it been available. 

 The slender twig of the previous year has silk spun all round it, 

 for a length of quite the full-grown larva (more than that of the 

 pupa), though its amount varies ; it is a little increased where 

 the girth arises some 5 -7mm. in front of the anal pad ; the girth is 

 single dorsally, but may divide into strands near its origin. It passes a 

 little forwards, usually impresses the wings, making a groove, and crosses 

 between the 1st and 2nd abdominal segments (Chapman). Schmid 

 observes that it is to be noticed that pupation takes place on branches, 

 whilst that of its allies takes place on the ground, under leaves. We 

 suspect this is a very dubious generalisation. Riihl notes that the 



