XYLOPHASIA LITHOXYLEA. 57 



an inch and a half to an inch and six-eighths, and is 

 often very stout. Its colour is either grey, brownish- 

 grey, or lurid deep reddish-grey, varying in intensity, 

 and there is a variety banded across the middle of 

 each segment with darker grey than the ground colour ; 

 these bands are not abruptly defined, but melt away 

 to the paler ground colour. Another variety occurs 

 in which the back is dark purplish-grey, changing 

 gently along the spiracular region to a dingy brownish- 

 red, which is on all the lower parts of the body, while 

 the head is dingy purplish-red ; but, whatever the 

 general colouring, the pulsating darker dorsal vessel 

 shows in a subdued manner through the skin. Within 

 the area of the trapezoidal spots on the bach there a,re on 

 each segment, from the fourth to the twelfth, six pale 

 grey marks ; namely, a pair of transverse short curved 

 and pointed streaks, ivith their broadish bases separated 

 only by a mere line on the middle of the back, and rather 

 close behind them four round dots, which range in a 

 transverse row between the hinder pair of the tubercular 

 spots. Along the spiracular region the paler colouring 

 of the lower part of the body is generally well con- 

 trasted with that above ; the spiracles black, some- 

 times grey outlined with black, the upper lip greyish- 

 brown ; anterior legs the same colour, though often 

 spotted and tipped with black : the black spots on the 

 sides of the third and fourth segments occasionally 

 vary both in number and shape. (W. B., 28, 11, 74; 

 E.M.M. XI, 208, 2, 75.) 



Xylophasia polyodon. 



Plate LXIII, fig. 2. 



A larva received May 13th, 1875, from Mr. Forbes, 

 of Edinburgh, found by him under stones on Arthur's 

 Seat — supposed to be Mamestra furva. It was eating 

 close to the roots of various grasses, and looked ex- 

 tremely like a purplish-brown polyodon. By May 20th 



