4528 Insects. 



George Wailes, Esq., at the Club's field-meeting in May last. — Thomas John Bold ; 

 Angus' Court, Bigg Market, Neweastle-on-Tyne, August 29, 1854. 



On the Transformation of Heliothis Dipsacea. — A description of the larva of 

 Heliothis Dipsacea, with a few remarks on the perfect insect and its transformations, 

 may perhaps be useful as well as interesting to the entomological readers of the 

 'Zoologist,' since I am not aware that it has hitherto been correctly described by any 

 author on British Lepidoptera : the description in Westwood and Humphreys' work 

 appears certainly erroneous ; there it is given as " red with the head ash-coloured and 

 interrupted white lines on the body :" with regard to other authors I cannot at this 

 moment speak with such certainty, since, not possessing, I am unable to refer to them, 

 though I think it is not unreasonable to conclude that Westwood and Humphreys' 

 being the latest complete work on the subject, it has followed the previous authors, 

 except where direct acknowledgment is made of the discoveries and observations of 

 other individuals. During the last week in July last some eggs were laid by a female 

 of H. Dipsacea, captured by myself on the heath ; these eggs T placed in a flower-pot 

 planted with various plants, such as the three common species of heath, some grasses 

 and broad-leaved plantain, covering the pot with gauze; within a week they were 

 hatched, and, much to my annoyance, some escaped before I was aware of it, from the 

 gauze being too coarse; however, having rectified this error, T am enabled, from those 

 retained, to give the subjoined description, taken at the different periods of their 

 growth : — The egg itself is very beautiful, being perfectly spherical, but small for the 

 size of the moth, of a bright but not deep yellow, and the whole surface closely and 

 obliquely ribbed, giving it the appearance of finely-watered silk. From the egg to the 

 third moult— being then about two-thirds of an inch long, cylindrical and slender for 

 the length — they are of a murky though semitransparent olive-green, each segment 

 with about eight black dots, arranged in pairs, and the head clouded with a darker 

 colour. After the third moult the permanent colours begin to appear, though they 

 vary again slightly after the next ; they are now dark oil or olive-green, striped longi- 

 tudinally with pale green, two stripes on each side being broader than the rest — one 

 just above the feet, and one between that and the centre of the back. Each segment 

 retains the former black dots, which are now plainly tuberculate, and from each issues 

 a small black spine ; the head pale green, distinctly variegated with the deepest green, 

 almost black ; neck the same deep black-green, under side dark green with short spiny 

 hairs, and feet black-green ; anal segment variegated like the head. After the fourth 

 and last moult the general distribution of the colours and markings is still the same, 

 but the broad pale-green stripe above the feet is now, in most specimens, pure white, 

 though in some tinged with yellow ; above that is a broad pale green stripe, edged on 

 the upper side with bright yellow and interrupted with black markings, corresponding 

 with the segments and containing the spiracles, which are white or yellowish ; these 

 black markings issue from the stripe next above, which is in most cases black, in some 

 deep green ; above this is a narrower pure white or pale yellow stripe ; the back is 

 dark-green, paler between the segments, and with four or five slender yellowish longi- 

 tudinal lines ; all the stripes run throughout the whole length of the body, but these 

 lines stop at the black nape of the neck. The under side is now pale green, the feet 

 slightly rufous, and the head and anal segment as after the third moult. The black 

 tubercles and spines do not appear to increase in size with the growth of the cater- 

 pillar, so that they are scarcely visible when it is full fed ; the length when full grown 

 is about an iuch aud a half to two inches, and they appear liable to little or no varia- 



