PIONEA STKAMENTALIS. 155 



The perfect insects were bred, the first by Mr. 

 Jeffrey as early as the 29th of June, 1882, followed 

 by a very great number in his cages, where they con- 

 tinued to appear at intervals — often three or four 

 together, and occasionally six at a time — up to the 27th 

 of July, though with me the first appeared on the 14th 

 of July, and then my anxiety was dispelled by a feeling 

 of great satisfaction at the completion of data for this 

 history. 



The egg of Pionea stramentalis is ovate in shape, 

 very flat at first, but swells gradually, and in about 

 six days appears to be finely reticulated on the surface, 

 and is then glistening and of a brownish-ochreous 

 yellow colour, transparent enough to show through 

 the shell the greenish embryo coiled round within, and 

 surrounded with yellow granules ; on the seventh day 

 it is more filled out and rather prominent, and then 

 becomes a little dingier in tint, and hatches on the 

 day following. 



The newly-hatched larva is green, and rather trans- 

 parent, with a flattened black shining head and dark 

 brown neck-plate, and on the body can just be dis- 

 cerned most minute black dots and hairs. After eating 

 out little pits and channels from the cuticle, causing 

 transparent blotches on the leaf for about five or six 

 days, and acquiring more colour, it becomes of a very 

 pale watery green as it lays up to moult. 



After the first moult it eats holes quite through the 

 leaf, and its ravages are very perceptible. Its head is 

 black, the back dark green, the belly pale watery- 

 green, the sides of the shining neck-plate dark brown, 

 while the middle of the plate is of the same green 

 colour as that of the back, the wart-like spots are of 

 the ground colour, but have dark brown centres bearing- 

 single hairs, and a pale ring is at the base of each 

 spot. 



Soon after the second moult it is very dark on the 

 back with a deep and subdued blackish olive-green 

 colour, while the belly has a much lighter tint of the 



