22 LITHOSIA COMPLANULA. 



T will only remark that the larva of this species 

 assumes its lateral reddish-orange stripe at its first 

 or second moult, when but little over a line in length ; 

 also that it seems to feed and grow more slowly than 

 the other species. (J. H., 5, 9, 68 ; E.M.M. V, 111.) 



LlTHOSIA MOLYBDEOLA. 



Plate XLI, fig. 4. 



Mr. Doubleday most kindly transmitted to me some 

 eggs he had received of this species, and by the time 

 the parcel reached me (July 26th, 1867) the young 

 larva3 had appeared. Most of the brood must have 

 soon perished, but the three which lived till September 

 were then about half an inch long, and the two final 

 survivors spun up before the end of May, and appeared 

 as moths on July 3rd and 4th, 1868. 



I could never see that they ate any food I gave them 

 freely, but at different times I saw that they had eaten 

 a little of various lichens from trees or banks, wall 

 moss, withered sallow and oak leaves, slices of turnip 

 and carrot, knot-grass, and they must have thriven as 

 well as they would have if they had been at large, for 

 the two bred moths were not at all smaller than 

 captured specimens. 



I noticed, not in this species only, but in all the 

 Lithosidce larvse I had, that the characteristic markings 

 and tints were assumed very early — long before they 

 had attained a quarter of their growth. When full- 

 grown this larva is rather more than three-quarters of 

 an inch in length, moderately stout, uniform in bulk ; 

 head very hard and shining ; all the tubercles crowned 

 with tufts of short hairs, mixed with a few longer 

 ones ; of the dorsal tubercles the front pair are small, 

 and the hinder pair very large. 



The ground colour, when seen between the tufts of 

 hair, is a dead blackish-grey ; but the segmental folds 



