134 BOTYS ASINALIS. 



hours after, the young larvae began to make their 

 debut, little tiny yellowish fellows with dark heads. 



Mr. Hudd had conjectured the food to be Bubia 

 peregrina (madder), and it soon appeared that he was 

 right ; the larvae at once fed freely on the flowers and 

 young seeds of this plant, and began to increase in 

 bulk, growing paler in colour, but showing a dark 

 line down the back. After a time they seemed to 

 take to the leaves of the madder, eating out the thick 

 substance of them from below, and leaving the upper 

 skin quite perfect in large transparent blotches ; I 

 should have said that from the first they spun them- 

 selves little hammocks, with a hole at either end, 

 after the custom of their tribe, in which they passed a 

 great deal of their time. 



By the 29th of July they had attained some size, 

 and had become translucent, of a shining light 

 brownish colour, with brown dorsal markings. 



By the 7th of August they were grown as big as 

 they intended to grow, and one or two showed 

 symptoms of changing. 



At this time their length was about three-quarters 

 of an inch, the figure tapering towards each end, 

 the legs sixteen, the head small and flat, the segmental 

 divisions strongly cut, a horny plate on the second 

 segment, the whole skin very translucent and shining, 

 with a few bristles. The colour was a yellowish- 

 brown on the back, paler and more greyish below, 

 the reddish-brown dorsal line rather interrupted, the 

 subdorsal stripe broader, brownish, and containing 

 within it two large black dots on each segment; 

 a broad, brown, lateral stripe below again, with one 

 black dot within it on the front of each segment ; 

 the spiracles black. On examination with a lens the 

 colours appeared more pinkish. 



On the 8th of August, and following days, the 

 eight or nine larvae which I had succeeded in rearing 

 spun themselves up to the sides of their flower-pot in 

 silk webs, and changed to rather slender bright red 



