XYLOMYGES CONSP1CILLARIS. 61 



and the last was accomplished by the most advanced 

 larva on July 26th, followed by others at intervals. 

 After this some deaths occurred among my stock, 

 and in addition to the food previously given, viz. L. 

 corniculatus and occasionally Polygonum aviculare, I 

 now gave them Lotus "major and Euonymus eurojodeus, 

 and afterwards I learnt from Dr. Wood that I should 

 have supplied them chiefly with the flowers of L. corni- 

 culatus, which he found his larvae preferred to the 

 leaves. The first two full-fed burrowed into the earth 

 on August 5th, and were followed not long afterwards 

 by some others, though two individuals chose to re- 

 main up to the last on the surface, where they pupated 

 without making any attempt to cover themselves, 

 whilst those which had entered the earth formed 

 therein a thick and tough cocoon of earthy particles, 

 looking as though they had been kneaded up with 

 fluid, the result being of the texture of a worm-cast, 

 the interior very smooth. The moths appeared on 

 April 17th, 18th, 19th, and 22nd, 1878. 



The egg is of a regular round shape, convex above 

 and depressed on the under surface, the shell orna- 

 mented with numerous fine ribs and reticulations. 

 When first laid the colour is pale bluish-white, by the 

 fourth day changed to a light pinkish-grey, with a 

 zone round the middle and a blotch on the top of light 

 brown, which, deepening day by day, makes the pale 

 ground still paler by contrast, until the ninth day, 

 when the whole egg becomes uniformly of the hue of 

 the bloom on a cluster of purple grapes, and in a few 

 hours the larva is hatched. 



The newly hatched larva has a very pale and trans- 

 parent, pinkish-grey body, and a pale brown head, the 

 dorsal vessel showing blackish-brown through some of 

 the segments; but after food has been taken and growth 

 commenced the skin shows glossy, light yellowish 

 watery green, with minute black dots. After the first 

 moult the colour changes to a more opaque bluish- 

 green, still with the black dots, and with a paler 



