432 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



an easy matter, so readily are they overlooked. All the larvae in their 

 earlier stages are of an uniform pale green colour ; the pink markings 

 on the sides and dorsal area, which some specimens later developed, 

 did not appear till they were half-grown. The method of feeding is 

 peculiar, and the same throughout the entire larval period, but is seen 

 to the best advantage in the adult larva. A small circular hole is 

 drilled in the side of an unexpanded corolla of the ivy-flower, the 

 petals are not further eaten, but an entire clearance of the inside of 

 the bud is made, the larva protruding its long, retractile neck, leech- 

 like, into the interior of the bud, whilst the third ridded segment 

 seems firmly glued to the side of it. The stamens being consumed, 

 the corolla soon becomes an empty bag under the caterpillar's persistent 

 though unseen, ravages. It is noteworthy that no attempt on the 

 part of the larva is ever made to enter the bud entirely, even when quite 

 young, but, if unable to effect an entire clearance from the first vantage 

 ground, a fresh hole is gnawed for this purpose opposite the first. 

 The frass is at first black, but is yellowish -white while the stamens are 

 being eaten. In nature, the presence of a fairly-sized larva is readily 

 evidenced by the appearance of the frass, some of which is apt to cling 

 round the stellate hairs which cover the young buds, also by the fact 

 that such of the latter as have afforded a meal to the larva have a 

 habit of opening prematurely, discovering the empty corolla. The 

 larvae are very sluggish, and it would appear that one good-sized 

 umbel affords one sufficient nourishment until pupation. They feed 

 indiscriminately by night or by day, and it was found that, when, 

 towards the end of their larval existence, the expanded ivy-blooms 

 were offered them, these were neglected for the unopened buds. The 

 first two moults are effected on the flower-umbel itself, but for the 

 subsequent one the larva descends a few inches down the stem, on 

 which a few threads are spun, to which it attaches itself ; the cast 

 skin appears pure white. Larvae placed on clematis blossoms took to 

 them readily ; the larva usually ascended the filament of an immature 

 stamen and rifled the still moist pollen -sacs. This food soon failed, 

 however, the blossom being over by the middle of August, when the 

 larvae are just hatching. The larvae found on August 27th, 1895, 

 were full-fed between September 9th-20th, at Carisbrooke ; other 

 larvae taken on August 25th, 1899, were fullfed about September 

 10th (Prideaux). The young larva, on ivy, does not enter a flower- 

 bud, but rests thereupon, its colour and position rendering it well- 

 nigh undiscoverable ; the colour of the newly-hatched larva is pale 

 bright green, and it is covered with a number of whitish hairs 

 which give it a soft greyish-green tone that exactly matches the 

 colour of the ivy-bud, and the position that it selects, when resting, is 

 the junction of the bud-stalk with the bud ; the head and long neck are 

 thrust into, or pressed closely against, the bud, and the remainder of the 

 body, stretched along the stalk, is so pressed against it, that, when the 

 bud is viewed from the top, the larva is so far hidden as to be 

 practically invisible, whilst, when held up sideways, the resemblance 

 to a slight thickening of the stalk, at its junction with the bud, is so 

 complete that one would not suspect the presence of a larva without 

 first being assured that one was there. Throughout its life the larva 

 is very sluggish, seldom leaving the umbel on which it was hatched ; 

 in some few cases where the buds showed that they had been tenanted 



