CYMATOPHORA OCULARIS. 6 



he found the female moths, although impregnated, very 

 unwilling to deposit in captivity, but at last they chose 

 to lay their eggs singly, or in little groups of two or 

 three together, on paper rather than on the twigs of 

 poplar with which they had been supplied ; the hour of 

 laying was after dusk in the evening. One moth lived 

 eleven days after pairing, and then died without laying 

 an egg. 



In its general figure the egg is semi-spherical, convex 

 above and flattish beneath, its surface very finely 

 reticulated ; creamy-white in colour, with the margin 

 at the base of the shell colourless and pellucid in con- 

 trast to the opacity of the rest, over which the shell is 

 glistening. 



On the evening of the 1st of June, without the eggs 

 showing any previous change of colour, the larvae began 

 to hatch, four of them within half an hour of dusk, the 

 others in course of the night. The young larvse were 

 nearly one-eighth of an inch long, of a pale pellucid 

 straw colour, inclining to greenish, the segmental folds 

 showing pale yellow. By June 5th they were three- 

 sixteenths of an inch long, and one or two had, by this 

 time, united the poplar leaves by short, thick, silken 

 attachments, and they were all feeding on the green 

 cuticle. By the 12th the most forward were half an 

 inch in length, and others about three-eighths ; these 

 last showed a black dot on each side of the second 

 segment, while those half an inch long had a black dot 

 on each side of the second, third, fourth, eleventh, and 

 twelfth segments : the head buff colour, the body of 

 greenish-buff, with a broad green velvety interior 

 showing through the semi-transparent skin. Up to this 

 time they had been eating away the cuticle from both 

 upper and under sides of the leaves, fastened by 

 detached threads one upon the other; henceforward 

 they began and continued to eat quite through the 

 substance of the leaves from the edges, but each larva 

 was always concealed between two leaves united by a 

 couple of strong, broad-based, short, stud-like fasten- 



