XYLOPHASIA LITHOXYLEA. 53 



pale flesh-colour led to this belief. Its length was 

 then about 4 lines. 



On the 13th it moulted, and was at once seen to be 

 really a young Xylophasia by the plates and wart-like 

 spots, now first distinctly to be seen, though at that 

 time they and the head were whitish, the body having 

 a light tint of pinkish-brown ; and on looking through 

 my most powerful lens I could already discern, between 

 the trapezoidal spots on the back, the six little whitish 

 marks that to me had hitherto betokened polyodon, so 

 that I began to feel confident I had before me the larva 

 of that species. 



By the 23rd of October it had grown, and was of 

 stouter build, but still of the same colour, with the 

 spots still paler than the pale pinkish-brown ground ; 

 it had made its hollow nest, big as a sparrow's egg, 

 under a little tuft of growing Poa annua, and I could 

 see where it came out occasionally to eat some of the 

 whitish parts of the grass, just above the roots on the 

 surface of the earth, the nest being formed close under 

 the roots which overspread the hollow forming the 

 domed roof ; and all the fibres retained the shape of 

 the construction by a layer of silk spun beneath them, 

 which formed the lining of the roof of the nest. 



By the 17th November the larva had grown; the 

 ground colour was still a pinkish-drab, but the head 

 and plates were of rather a deeper tint of the same, 

 and it was curious that at this date I could find no 

 trace of the little whitish marks on the back which 

 had in the middle of October arrested my attention. 

 The nest was now as big as a thrush's egg, which 

 obliged me to supply it with a fresh tuft of the grass. 



On the 19th January, 1883, the larva, which had the 

 head, plates, and spots unchanged up to the end of 

 December, now showed them black. From this time 

 it remained hybernating until the mild days near the 

 end of February, when it waked up and fed spar- 

 ingly, and again became torpid all through the cold 

 month of March, and on the 1st of April showed signs 



