BOTYS PANDALIS. 113 



ment and kindness of my friend Mr. W. R. Jeffrey, of 

 Ashford, who, on the 13th of June, 1879, captured a 

 female Botys pandalis, and with hope of obtaining 

 eggs confined her in a jam-pot, together with leaves 

 of several Compositse and Labiatse ; yet not an egg was 

 deposited on any of them. 



However, two days later Mr. Jeffrey found several 

 eggs had been laid on the inside smooth surface of 

 the pot, and five more on its piece of plate-glass cover, 

 looking for all the world like splashes of moisture 

 that should be wiped off at once, but the next moment 

 with keen intuition he knew they were ova; and 

 though wishing to send some directly to me, he after- 

 wards very wisely resolved not to risk forwarding the 

 piece of glass, but to pay attention to them and their 

 produce himself till they were fit to travel, and to 

 furnish me with his observations, which here follow : 



"When first laid, on the 14th and 15th of June, the 

 eggs were flat, scale-like, but more translucent than 

 any I have observed, like minute drops of fluid or oil ; 

 under the microscope the shell is seen to be reticulated 

 and beautifully iridescent. On the fifth day the 

 embryo was distinctly visible, on the eighth day the 

 ocelli could be seen, on the tenth the mandibles 

 plainly, the segmental divisions and dorsal canal 

 slightly, and on the twelfth day the black head and 

 plate on the second segment showed most plainly ; 

 indeed, the slow undulating movement in the alimen- 

 tary canal could be distinctly traced. About 10 o'clock 

 the same night, 27th of June, they began to hatch, 

 and the little larvse were all out of the shells before 

 next morning. 



" The colour of the larvae when first hatched is 

 creamy-white, with black head and plate. Fortunately 

 I had growing plants of Solidago virgaurea, Origanum 

 vulgar e, and other species, from which I at once 

 gathered leaves to see what they would take as food ; 

 but at first they were too restless, crawling upward 

 and trying to escape from under the glass cover of 



VOL. ix. 8 



