46 NOCTTJA SOBRINA. 



The young larvae were at first provided with heather, 

 bramble, and bilberry in a bottle, but they chose 

 heather, on changing which one larva was lost, and 

 another found dead at the bottom of the bottle. My 

 stock, thus reduced to nine larvae, fed chiefly on the 

 heather and on knot-grass, and a little of the green 

 cuticle of a soft leaf of young birch, still rejecting the 

 bilberry. On the 31st they had become of the same 

 green colour as the heather, but semi-transparent with 

 minute blackish dots and hairs and brown heads. 

 On the 12th of September, I found two had moulted, 

 and others were preparing. The new dress consisted 

 of a dark brownish-olive opaque-surfaced dorsal coat, 

 greyish and semi-transparent at the segmental divi- 

 sions, the head pale greyish-brown and glossy, the black 

 ocelli very distinct, the lobes on the crown blackish- 

 brown, a pale greyish-ochreous faint dorsal Hue having 

 beyond the fourth a distinct roundish paler ochreous 

 spot near the end of each segment as far as the twelfth 

 segment, whereon they end ; a fainter subdorsal fine 

 line of greyish-ochreous, but much interrupted, so as 

 to be visible chiefly towards the end of each segment ; 

 the dark colouring of the back extends to the spiracu- 

 lar region, which is edged with black ; this is followed 

 by a subspiracular stripe of drab colour, and the belly 

 is a much darker drab ; the tubercular dots are black, 

 each with a fine hair. On September 29th one again 

 moulted ; the details are as above with the exception 

 of the ground colour, which is now deep crimson- 

 brown and velvety ; it is just a quarter of an inch 

 in length. On the 21st I found one had died, my 

 number thus being reduced to four, the most advanced 

 of which has just moulted, and is at present of a light 

 chestnut colour. On the 11th of December it was 

 five-eighths of an inch long and stout in proportion, 

 and had for a fortnight been eating decaying and 

 dead leaves of birch and a little grass, the other 

 three generally hybernating, sitting up on the leaves 

 in the form of S. The largest at this time was 



