76 cataolysta lemnata. 



placing it in a small dry saucer, I found it much less 

 helpless than I at first thought, for recovering in a 

 few seconds from the surprise of its novel situation, 

 it began to crawl about and up the side of the saucer ; 

 I then put in a small quantity of water, and placed 

 the larva on it, when it floated without sinking even 

 its feet, and when touched slid quite helplessly about ; 

 in fact, I found it now impossible to immerse the larva, 

 for its specific gravity seemed as nothing in compari- 

 son with the water. 



After figuring the naked larva I placed it in a 

 glass of water with a little duckweed on the surface, 

 and then it at once began to spin some of the leaves 

 together with its anterior legs, placing and holding 

 them suitably for its purpose; and still it remained 

 all the while perfectly dry, its skin being the very 

 perfection of waterproof texture. 



In the course of six minutes it had roughly con- 

 structed a new case, and was almost hidden from 

 view, by this time lying on its back and employed 

 seemingly in finishing the interior. 



While out of its case I found it was three-eighths 

 of an inch long, of slender proportion, thickest in the 

 middle, the anal flap rounded above like a small knob, 

 the colour of the head and second segment black 

 above and shining, the rest of the body without gloss 

 and of a sooty velvety blackness, but a blacker dorsal 

 line could be distinguished ; a faint olive tint seemed 

 to show through the sooty surface along the spiracular 

 region under a lens, but even that aid did not enable 

 me at this early stage to see the spiracles. 



At the approach of winter all the larvse ceased to 

 feed on the duckweed, and shut themselves up in 

 their cases for hibernation from early in December to 

 the beginning of March, 1875, when during the 

 occurrence of a few mild days they began to move 

 about and protrude their front segments, but soon 

 retired again until the middle of April ; thenceforward 

 they frequently came partly out, and appeared to be 



