EBULEA SAMBUCALIS. 147 



and legs are pale, the former of a semi-pellucid faint 

 greenish tint, yet withal having a most delicate flesh 

 tinge, the latter pellucid ; the tubercular warts are 

 raised, their centres green and glittering, each bearing 

 a fine hair ; the whole shin of the larva is lustrous as 

 the clearest glass. 



When full-fed it by degrees loses all its previous 

 details of colouring and texture, until it becomes uni- 

 formly lllce polished white ivory, and, after remaining 

 a few days in this state, begins to spin its cocoon. 



By the 25th of September all my larvss had spun 

 themselves up in strong and closely woven silken 

 cocoons, transparent at first, but as soon as they were 

 made thicker changing to a flesh-colour, and in the 

 course of a week to pale brownish. 



Guenee (Vol. VIII, p. 364) says of this species, " Elle 

 est bien distincte de la sambucalis, quoiqu'en dise 

 Duponchel. Sa chenille vit sur la Parietaire, et aussi 

 sur le Stachys sylvestris, au dire de Germar, qui la 

 decrit ainsi : Larva obesa, rugosa, glabra, sub-pellucida, 

 alba, habitat in foliis Stachys sylvestris contortis;" 

 but it seems to me that this description by Germar 

 does not suit the larva until it is about to spin. 



Ebidea sambucalis . — When setting myself to look for 

 this species, I first tried the tall bushes with stiff 

 leaves, but meeting with no success on them, I then 

 tried some young growth of Sambucus nigra a foot or 

 two high, and soon found several larvae, each of them 

 lying under a whitish silken web spun on the under 

 surface of a leaf, and causing a narrow fold, which, 

 though slight, was perceptible even on the upper sur- 

 face. When the leaf was turned up, the larva was seen 

 lying in the hollow, covered with this semi-transparent 

 screen of silk, open at each end, and from this at 

 night it would emerge to feed on other parts of the 

 leaf. The smallest example I found was from three- 

 eighths to half an inch long, and very slender, of a 

 pale watery greenish tint, having a deeper green dorsal 

 stripe, bordered on each side with a stripe of faint 



