4 HYPENODES COSTiESTRIGALIS. 



of their appearance, but I know I was the more struck 

 with it because it did not correspond with my recol- 

 lection of the eggs sent me by Dr. Knaggs in 1865. 



However, I know that these sent by Mr. Carrington 

 were deposited singly, and were of the usual Noctua 

 shape, and dark red in colour. 



The larvae were hatched on the 12th and 13th of 

 July, and, after a little hesitation, seemed to take 

 kindly enough to the flowers of Thymus serpyllum : I 

 cannot help thinking that they also took kindly to 

 one another — in the style of Hamlet's uncle, <c a little 

 more than kin, and less than kind ; " for, although 

 I never caught one in the act of cannibalism, somehow 

 they became fewer and fewer in number, until by the 

 12th of August there remained but one full-grown 

 larva to be described. 



The newly-hatched larva is quite translucent and 

 glossy, in colour rose-pink, rather paler towards the 

 tail ; the head is blackish ; the skin is furnished with 

 some bristles. At the end of a week it had lost 

 much of its translucent look, the colour had become 

 more of a claret, the bristles had disappeared. At 

 the end of another week or ten days much of the 

 purplish-red had vanished, and the colour had become 

 a dark brown. On the 12th of August the full- 

 grown larva was thus described : 



Length, when stretched out in walking, about half 

 an inch ; but its general attitude is to " hunch up " its 

 middle segments into a close loop, keeping the front 

 and hind segments close to the surface on which it is 

 resting ; and for this position the figure seems specially 

 adapted, the head and three following segments being 

 much smaller than the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th segments, 

 all four of which are tumid, and the hinder segments 

 being also somewhat smaller ; there are but two pairs 

 of ventral legs, or twelve legs in all. 



The colour of the back is dark purplish or crimson- 

 brown, very glossy, making it hard to distinguish the 

 obscure markings on it ; through the back runs a 



