72 DREPANA SICULA. 



mark of deeper yellow extends from near the begin- 

 ning of the seventh segment to near the end of the 

 ninth ; another begins on the front of the tenth and 

 includes the pointed tail, relieved on the twelfth 

 segment with a brown chevron. As the larva grows 

 these yellow marks expand and become united into 

 one long fluctuating shape along the back, as I have 

 formerly described, though I have since then had one 

 variety retain the triangular mark isolated distinctly to 

 the end of its larval existence ; and another with the 

 yellow colour rather inclining to drab. 



In reference to my former account of the species 

 (p. 67), wherein mention was made of two young 

 larvae dying rather than eat the lime supplied to them, 

 and that yet only the year before a nearly mature 

 larva had thriven on that food well enough, it is 

 now needful to state that what seemed to me then so 

 inexplicable, received afterwards an easy solution 

 when Mr. Grigg sent me some lime gathered in the 

 haunts of D. sicula, leaves whose smaller size and 

 qualities of texture and colour were different from 

 those the little larvae rejected. It was a great satis- 

 faction, then, on visiting the trees where, without 

 thought of any particular species of lime, I had first 

 gathered food for the adult larva, to find that they 

 were Tilia parvifolia, and that T. europcea also grew 

 at no great distance, to which, by a mischance, the 

 next year at night my footsteps had been directed, an 

 incident proving the importance of having the proper 

 name when allusion is made to trees or plants as food 

 for larvae. (W. B., 10, 10, 80; E.M.M. XVII, 122.) 



