80 PARAPONYX STBATIOTATA. 



that could do them harm, and always straining the 

 water supplied from time to time to make good what 

 had been lost by evaporation. 



Before giving a detailed account of my observations 

 I had better describe the larva, because the peculiari- 

 ties of its structure will account for the most curious 

 of its habits. 



The larva when full-grown is from six-eighths to 

 seven-eighths of an inch in length, of cylindrical 

 figure, though tapered a little on the four anterior 

 segments, the head being rather the smallest, and the 

 two hinder segments also a little tapered ; the anterior 

 and anal legs are very well developed, the ventral ones 

 moderately so ; the skin is soft and smooth, and 

 furnished with eight rows of flexible branchiae,* com- 

 posed of tufts of six or less slender fleshy filaments of 

 unequal length tapering to rather fine points, and all 

 radiating from a short thick basal stem, and occupying 

 the positions of the usual warts or spots seen so 

 distinctly in an Agrotis larva; otherwise, to the unas- 

 sisted eye, they remind one of the spines of some 

 butterfly larvae. 



In colour the semi-translucent body is of a very pale 

 tint of olive-ochreous or of whitish-ochreous, gene- 

 rally more or less tinged with olive, and marked with 

 a few small purplish freckles ; the alimentary canal is 

 conspicuous, showing through the skin as a broad 

 dorsal stripe of dark grey, or brownish- or greenish - 

 grey; the whitish tracheae can also be partially seen 

 through the skin on each side ; the pale brown head 

 has the lobes delicately outlined with dark brown, the 

 mouth and ocelli blackish-brown ; the branch ia3 dirty 



# That these are rightly so called, and that they are connected with 

 the respiratory system, I had a good proof while changing the water of 

 the first two larvae I received; when I put them for a minute or two 

 into a glass of spring water just drawn from a filter, immediately there 

 appeared a small silvery air-bubble at the extreme point of each fila- 

 ment, but when the larvae were returned to the fresh river water these 

 air-bubbles soon disappeared. I did not try to make them appear 

 again, as I feared the experiment might be detrimental to the health of 

 the larvae. — W. B. 



