NOLA OENTONALIS. 45 



lateral, and spiracular rows of projecting warty pink 

 tubercles, with radiating, longish greyish- brown hairs. 



This larva has only three pairs of ventral prolegs, 

 the first pair being absent. 



Trifolium procumbens appears to be their proper 

 food, as they like getting on the hop -like seeding heads, 

 to which their colour assimilates well. 



On the 22nd and 23rd they moulted, and the next 

 day were thicker and of a subdued, velvety, deep red 

 colour, the tubercles a glistening blackish-brown, the 

 hairs light brown. They now ate away the cuticle of 

 the leaves, causing semi-transparent whitish blotches 

 on them. 



(From Mr. Tugwell I learnt subsequently that the 

 eggs hatched August 27th and 28th, and the larvae 

 moulted first on September 5th and 6th ; the second 

 moult occurred from the 13th to the 16th, and 

 contemporary with my portion of them the third moult 

 occurred from the 21st to the 25th.) 



On the 26th the larva3 had again become paler flesh 

 colour, but with somewhat of a faint greenish tinge, 

 the tubercles dark reddish. I observed one feeding 

 on a blossom and another eating the red-brown, hop- 

 like envelopes, exposing the ends of the seeds. 



On September 30th one fixed itself as if for the 

 fourth moult, and by October 6th all five had moulted, 

 and, as on each former moult, the head-piece remained 

 attached to the old skin. As this breaks away behind 

 the plate, the larva draws its head out from the old 

 helmet and then creeps out of its old coat ; the split is 

 somewhat in form of the letter I, which opens, and a 

 portion lies over on either side, so that the egress of 

 the larva is comparatively easy. 



The larvae were now feeding slowly on the flowers 

 and leaves of Trifolium minus. They were dingy red, 

 with a dorsal line of paler brownish-ochreous faintly 

 edged with darker than the ground, the tubercles all 

 of a shining blackish-brown, the skin of the body soft 

 without gloss ; they were again given T. procumbens, 



