146 EBULEA 8AMBUCAL1S. 



and comes out at night to feed on the remaining por- 

 tions of the same leaf; so that as it grows it must 

 move from leaf to leaf. I think I found most of the 

 larvse low down on the plants of Stachys, for though I 

 found several webs on the upper leaves, they were 

 generally empty. The larva eats large holes quite 

 through the substance of the leaf, thus giving con- 

 spicuous marks of its presence, and leaving the ribs 

 and the margin untouched ; when full-fed it quits the 

 plant in search of a suitable hiding-place in which to 

 spin its cocoon for passing the winter. 



The smallest larva I chanced to meet with was 

 about three-eighths of an inch long, and possessed all 

 the characters of those more mature. 



The full-grown larva is about five-eighths of an inch 

 in length, with the true Pyralis contour, thickest in 

 the middle of the body, with the segments well defined 

 and plump, especially on the belly, and on the back 

 subdivided by a transverse wrinkle ; the head is small, 

 and projecting forwards in a line with the body ; the 

 ventral legs are slender, furnished with rather spread- 

 ing hooked feet, the anal pair extended behind the 

 body. In colour the head is whitish with the least 

 possible flesh tinge, the mouth brownish, the ocelli 

 blackish, the second segment whitish with a triangular 

 broadish spot behind of bright transparent green ; 

 from this starts the conspicuous dorsal stripe of the 

 same colour, more or less dark, of uniform width to 

 near the anal extremity, where it narrows a little by 

 degrees and is seen to be pulsating; on either side of 

 this is a broad rather ragged-edged stripe, quite 

 attenuated anteriorly and a little posteriorly, of pure 

 opaque ivhite, bearing a few minute freckles trans- 

 versely near the front of each segment ; the segmental 

 folds pure white ; below on the side is an uniformly 

 broadish stripe of transparent green, darker in some 

 parts than in others, and along its lower edge the 

 tracheal thread of whitish can be seen beneath the skin, 

 on which are the small round black spiracles ; the belly 



