62 ENDROMIS VERSICOLOR. 



of egress at one end, still retains a faint tinge of pinkish- 

 violet after the larva has escaped. 



On leaving the egg-shell, the larva is a stout and 

 robust creature of cylindrical figure ; the head, as usual 

 at this time, the largest segment, is of a dark black 

 colour, with greenish mouth ; the body velvety black, 

 with a dingy olive-greenish plate on the second segment, 

 having a wide black dorsal division; on the other 

 segments are olivaceous greenish-yellow, tubercular 

 warts, each anterior pair on the back being distinctly 

 larger than the others, which are very minute, all 

 bearing a few weak, soft yellowish hairs. A black 

 dorsal blunt projection is on the twelfth segment ; the 

 anal plate and outer sides of the anal legs are pale 

 olive-greenish-yellow ; the ventral prolegs are blackish 

 on the outside with greenish inner side, the anterior 

 legs olivaceous yellow and shining. 



From the first, they at intervals fed on two particular 

 leaves near the top of the birch spray, whereon they 

 had all assembled, holding to the twig by their ventral 

 anal prolegs only, the fore part of each body being 

 bent back away from the twig, leaving the anterior 

 legs free ; by the fourth day their colouring had become 

 dingy blackish- olive, with the mouth orange-ochreous, 

 a blackish dorsal line, black tubercular spots, a conical 

 hump on the twelfth segment, a faintly paler spiracular 

 ridge on the thoracic region, and the anterior legs 

 pale orange, with black bases. 



After the first moult, the ground colour was of a 

 subdued green, thickly freckled with black atoms ; the 

 head and plate on second segment paler, of sober 

 greenish-yellow, as were also the spiracular ridge on the 

 thoracic segments, and a green backward- slanting 

 stripe on the side of each of the others, and this was 

 still paler and yellower on the eleventh and twelfth, on 

 which last a stripe began at the top of the blunt 

 eminence ; the anal flap was margined with the same 

 colour ; the head was marked with two black stripes on 

 either side ; a black dorsal line divided the front plate 



