76 HETEROGENEA ASELLUS. 



Marlow, kindly sent me a few eggs, procured by Mr. 

 Felix Parker, together with the parent female, which 

 had a small bunch of eggs protruding from the ovi- 

 positor ; the others were laid on the side of a chip box, 

 agglomerated together. 



Viewed with a lens they appeared somewhat of a 

 drop shape, but ill defined, from their being connected 

 together in little lumps, the colour very pale, shining, 

 transparent, and gelatinous-looking, otherwise much 

 the colour of the chip. By the end of the month they 

 began to grow yellowish, and then to be tinged with 

 the colour of brown sherry in parts of the little masses ; 

 then they began to hatch. At this critical moment, 

 being otherwise engaged for some hours, I was unable 

 to know that they were hatched and requiring food, 

 though I was keeping them in a glass-topped box in 

 order to observe the changes of colour. When I 

 returned to them all were dead except one, a mere 

 speck, which was slowly moving on the chip ; one 

 dead one lay at the bottom of the box, and others I 

 found dead, wedged into the junction of the box and 

 its lid, As well as my strongest lens would show them 

 to me, these very small specks of creatures were of an 

 ovate roundish figure, dark brown above and pale 

 greenish beneath, — in short, miniature representations, 

 apparently, in all respects of the mature larva. 



The solitary living larva I placed on a leaf of beech, 

 and put two other leaves over it, but on looking for it 

 two days later was unable to see it, and concluded it 

 had somehow escaped, probably through the muslin 

 cover of the little perforated box in which it was con- 

 fined. (W. B., Note-Book III, 200.) 



