56 AGRuTHRA NEMORAUS. 



showing plainly through the translucent skin ; the 

 spiracles are very small and inconspicuous, being of 

 the ground colour ringed with brown ; below them 

 the rest of the side, and the belly and legs, are of a 

 uniform tint of very pale watery olive-greenish ; there 

 is a fine hair from each tubercular situation. 



By the end of the third week in July, that is after 

 feeding about six weeks, the larva spun up, forming 

 for itself a cocoon in a very clever manner from a 

 leaf of hornbeam ; taking as its standpoint a spot 

 nearly in the centre of the midrib, equidistant that 

 is from the tip of the leaf and the footstalk, and 

 cutting through the midrib itself at that point, but 

 leaving about one-eighth of an inch of the leaf uncut 

 to serve as a footstalk to its cocoon, it proceeded to 

 make two semicircular cuts towards the tip of the 

 leaf, but at a slight inclination towards the left, so 

 that further on the midrib was again severed by the 

 right cut, and the place where the two cuts met was 

 on the left edge of the leaf (looking at it, that is, from 

 above) not very far from the tip ; using then the 

 midrib of this semi-detached circular piece as the back- 

 bone of its structure, the larva bent down the two sides 

 of the piece, and fastened them together all along their 

 edges ; the cocoon thus formed is rounded along the 

 upper outline, and with its sides rather flattened till 

 they meet in the sharp lower edge. (John Hellins, 

 17th November, 1875; E.M.M., March, 1876, XII, 

 232.) 



The eggs of this beautiful species are deposited on 

 the twigs of its food-plant, Carpinus betulus (horn- 

 beam), singly or in small batches, about the first 

 week in June, and are extremely flat and incon- 

 spicuous ; on first seeing them one could hardly 

 imagine them capable of containing life. Even when 

 deposited on a smooth surface, like a pill-box, they 

 are difficult to see, and when on the stem of the food- 

 plant would almost defy the best pair of eyes to 

 detect. 



