(ENISTIS QUADRA. 31 



there seemed to ensue some operation of denuding 

 itself of most of its hairs ; but this process I was in 

 every instance unable to witness, it being always 

 effected during the night, generally the first night after 

 the larva had taken its position on the silk ; most of 

 the hairs left remaining were on the second and third 

 segments ; nearly all the others appeared to have been 

 bitten off close to the skin, excepting some few mere 

 stumps of various lengths left along the sides. The 

 actual moult would take place either on the first, 

 second, or third night after this loss of hair, the mini- 

 mum time with the smallest, the maximum with the 

 largest larva ; after moulting, the first meal was evi- 

 dently made on the cast skin, as no trace of it could 

 be found beyond the head piece, except in one instance, 

 when a small fragment of skin remained. This break- 

 fast on its old skin by a hairy larva was to me very 

 surprising ; it seemed, however, to act beneficially, for 

 the next meal on lichen would be a hearty one. 



I found that after each larva had attained its greatest 

 length, it began gradually to shorten for three or four 

 days before spinning its cocoon, although still occa- 

 sionally feeding, sometimes even ravenously, during 

 this period. 



The full grown larva, as I have said, varied from 

 one and three-eighths of an inch to nearly one and 

 five-eighths of an inch in length ; was moderately 

 stout in proportion, somewhat cylindrical in figure, 

 tapered a little from the fourth segment to the head, 

 also from the eleventh to the anal extremity ; the 

 thoracic segments deeply wrinkled, the others plump 

 and separated by well-defined divisions ; the ventral 

 prolegs long and well-developed, the anal prolegs long 

 and extended behind beyond the end of the body ; each 

 segment with five prominent wart-like tubercles on 

 either side, forming through the length of the body as 

 many longitudinal rows ; the two upper rows nearly 

 close together along the subdorsal region, the others 

 at equal distances along the sides, the lowest almost 



