fiYDROCAMPA STAGNATA. 107 



colouring of the plant begins to fade a little. On ap- 

 proaching its full growth the larva keeps nearer the 

 surface of the water, and sometimes cuts through a 

 leaf all but just the fibre on one side, which causes 

 the upper portion to fall and be suspended in the 

 water. Observing how this was done by a larva in 

 captivity which I had received from Mr. Jeffrey, I 

 was enabled to find one by seeing a Sparganium 

 similarly treated in a brook, where, in former years, 

 I had often sought for the larva in vain ; on those 

 occasions, however, I had only sought it on the sur- 

 face of the water, or above it, seldom or never be- 

 neath, expecting, as I did, to find it in a case of some 

 kind, after the manner of its congener Hydrocampa 

 nymphdeata. 



The eggs, which my friend sent me in two groups, 

 appeared to number thirty-seven in one group, and 

 forty-nine in the other, laid very closely and evenly 

 together in rows, and somewhat imbricated ; in shape 

 the egg is roundish-ovate, and its surface striated; 

 the colour, olive-yellow and semi-pellucid, showing 

 the embryo rather paler. In about a week they be- 

 come roundish above, and greyish, and begin to show 

 a black blotch at their summits, and next day the 

 larvae appear. 



The newly-hatched larva has a blackish head and 

 plate on the second segment, a clear and colourless 

 body, and in twenty-four hours shows a broad, 

 greenish-grey dorsal vessel through the clear skin ; 

 the lobes of the head blackish ; mouth and ocelli black, 

 being about one-sixteenth of an inch in length ; when 

 twelve days old it is in length a trifle more than an 

 eighth of an inch, the head and plate on second 

 segment changed to very pale brown, the body trans- 

 lucent, of a watery yellowish-green tint, the internal 

 vessel light greenish ; in twenty days . it grows to 

 be a quarter of an inch long, of slender proportion, 

 the third and fourth segments the stoutest, slightly 

 tapering from them each way, the head and second 



