BOTYS PANDALIS. 119 



drawn up over it, a performance which reminded me 

 vividly of an old acquaintance — the aquatic Hydro- 

 campa nymphceata ; — but while thus engaged it would 

 at the least alarm shoot back in an instant within the 

 case, often causing it to fall lightly to the bottom, 

 and there, lying perfectly still, it had the natural 

 appearance of a mere fragment of leaf rubbish. 



The colouring of these larvae was light pinkish- 

 drab above, and much paler beneath, the darker dorsal 

 line invariably noticeable between two pale lines (a 

 detail inadvertently omitted in my previous descrip- 

 tion) ; the tubercular shining spots though blackish on 

 the thoracic segments were on the others of a warm 

 lightish brown ; when full-fed and almost ready to 

 spin up the length was about an inch, and the 

 colouring changed to a very pale yellowish flesh tint, 

 except just at each end of the body. 



When all but one were spun up in their cases, and 

 I wished to examine that one in mature condition, 

 I tried to push it out of its case with a piece of string, 

 but though this passed through from end to end it 

 failed to expel the larva, whereupon I stripped it of 

 the case piecemeal, and kept it unclothed until 1 had 

 figured it ; then I supplied it with various leaves, but 

 it refused to utilize any of them for a new case, and 

 eventually took up a new position on the stout calico 

 top of its prison; twice I removed it and put it first 

 on a leaf of bramble, and then on one of beech, but it 

 would persist, even a third time, in returning at night to 

 the same spot, as though it had lost reliance on any 

 leaf, and there it expended five days of hard labour in 

 cutting through and fashioning the tough material 

 into a pasty-shaped case, which it moored to a few 

 leaflets of its food-plant, and spun up on the last day 

 of August. 



On the 22nd of October I luckily bethought myself 

 of the three perfect insects of last year's brood that 

 emerged in autumn, and at once inspected the pot of 

 this season's pupae and found two perfect specimens, 



