42 NOCTUA TJMBKOSA. 



and 30th, 1870. From them, the young larvae began 

 to hatch respectively on August 3rd, 5th, and 11th. 

 At first, grass was provided for them, but they refused 

 to eat, and some of them died. I then supplied them 

 with dock leaves, and thenceforth all went well ; they 

 fed and throve satisfactorily ; but towards the end of 

 November, dock began to fail, and the few leaves I 

 could then obtain were supplemented with bramble, of 

 which the larvae partook freely. My chief object 

 being to obtain figures of the larvae, I did all I could 

 think of to force them on to full growth, and succeeded 

 with some of them by feeding with Plantago lanceolata, 

 Galium mollugo, Vinca major, and garden-strawberry 

 leaves, all of which they ate at intervals, when the 

 rigour of winter in the least abated. At length the 

 Periwinkle became the only food procurable, and on 

 this they did very well, for even while the snow lay on 

 the ground, the leaves of this plant continued green 

 and succulent ; thus, between the intervals of hard 

 frost, the larvae crawled out of their temporary 

 hybernacula of curled- up, dry bramble leaves, and 

 partook of their food. Of course, they were not kept 

 in the open air, but in a room without a fire, so that 

 at no time were they exposed to frost. 



Towards the end of February and beginning of 

 March, 1871, young dock leaves began to appear, and 

 with an increase of temperature, the larvae became 

 more lively and hungry ; the smaller ones, whose coats 

 had become dingy, now moulted and fed, while the 

 others that had reached their full growth about 

 Christmas began to stir and show symptoms of 

 approaching pupation ; they grew smaller, their colours 

 merged into a darkness, which spread over them as 

 they retired into moss ; several of them becoming 

 pupae between February 27th and March 11th. 



The others continued to feed chiefly on dock, with 

 a little of Scrophularia aquatica, and attained their 

 full size the first week in April ; they then, however, 

 like their predecessors, began to dwindle, and became 



