MILTOCHRISTA MINIATA. 13 



MlLTOCHRISTA MINIATA. 



Plate XL, fig. 3. 



Eggs were obtained from a female which had been 

 captured July 18th, 1867. The larvae were hatched 

 before the end of the month, they fed slowly but 

 almost continuously till the end of the following May, 

 by which time six out of nineteen survived to spin up. 

 The moths emerged between the 19th and 30th June, 

 1868. 



The food at first chosen was a sallow leaf, which 

 had become damp and rotten by being kept in a glass- 

 stoppered bottle ; afterwards when placed out of doors 

 in a flower-pot they ate withered oak and sallow leaves 

 and various lichens ; in the spring they nibbled the 

 slices of turnips put in with them as traps for slugs, 

 and at last settled down steadily to eat the red waxy 

 tips of Lichen caninus, and fed up to quite full size on 

 this food. In a state of nature I understand they are 

 found feeding upon the lichens that grow on the boles 

 of oak trees. 



The eggs of miniata are very different from the usual 

 round pearly beads of the Lithosice, being more fusi- 

 form in shape, rich yellow in colour, and placed on 

 end with great regularity at a little distance from each 

 other in rank and file. My batch of eggs was deposited 

 in four rows, viz. three of five eggs each, and one of 

 four. 



The larvae from the first were little dingy, foggy - 

 looking fellows, with a quantity of fine hair on their 

 backs, and although after the last moult their plumes 

 became denser and darker than before, yet a descrip- 

 tion of the last stage is applicable throughout. 



When full-grown, the length is a trifle over half an 

 inch, the hairs that project before and behind making 

 it look a little longer ; the figure stout, uniform in 

 bulk ; the skin very shining, but densely covered with 

 plumes. Segments 2 and 13 are furnished only with 



