78 MAMESTRA ABJECTA. 



dark greenish-glossed female, emerged on July 

 29th. 



The young larva of the 3rd of June lived only a 

 week, and was barely three-quarters of an inch long, 

 of stoutish figure ; its head, plates, and small horny 

 spots of shining red-brown colour, the real ground 

 colour of the body being a rather shining flesh-colour, 

 palest and coolest on the thoracic segments, though 

 not much of this showed on the back and sides, just 

 merely a little around each spot, and in the transverse 

 wrinkles when they opened with the movement of 

 crawling ; the intermediate parts clouded purplish- 

 brown without gloss, the paler coloured skin more 

 conspicuous between the head and the plate on the 

 next segment. 



The full-grown larva measured one and five-eighths 

 of an inch in length, and was stoutly proportioned, 

 cylindrical, the segments plump, moderately well 

 defined, and puckered on the sides with short wrinkles, 

 the spiracular region forming a puffed ridge along the 

 eleventh and twelfth. The ventral and anal prolegs 

 short, thick, and well beneath the body as in the true 

 Agrotides, more adapted for burrowing than for walk- 

 ing, though in all other respects of structure besides 

 its true affinity lay with Xylophasia, very apparent in 

 the transverse horny ridges and spots on the thoracic 

 segments, though all the spots were much smaller 

 than with polyodon, yet they were similar in shape 

 and arrangement ; the body was of a rather dirty pale 

 flesh tint, having a faintly darker flesh-coloured dorsal 

 vessel appearing through the skin ; the head, the an- 

 terior and anal plates, and the anterior legs of glossy 

 bright reddish-brown colour ; the horny spots also, but 

 of a much paler tint, each bearing a fine hair ; the 

 front margin of the anterior plate, pointed in the 

 centre and curving away concavely, showed that 

 whenever the head should be retracted the margin of 

 the plate would accurately fit against the lobes on the 

 crown of the head, and protect the soft flexible skin 



