SCOPULA OLIVALIS. 165 



SC0P[JLA OLIVALIS. 



Plate CLV, fig. 2. 



For opportunities of observing the larva of this 

 species I have been much indebted to the kindness 

 of the Rev. J. Hellins and Mr. W. Jeffrey, during 

 September and October of 1876 and 1877, and again 

 to the last-named for further examples of the larva in 

 the spring of 1878, from which the moths were bred 

 in the first week of June. 



The several food-plants consisted of Sambucus nigra, 

 Galeobdolon luteum, Stacliys sylvatica, MercMrialis 

 perennis, Vrtica dioica, and Humulus lupulus. 



In autumn the young larva resides in the twisted 

 top of a leaf, or under a part of the edge turned down, 

 sometimes between two leaves partly spun together 

 with white silk, w r here it feeds at intervals until its 

 third moult, and is about a quarter of an inch long, of 

 a green colour spotted with black, the spots large in 

 proportion, having all the characters of the adult; it 

 then spins itself up in an opaque white silken oval 

 cocoon-like hibernaculum, firmly and closely attached 

 to part of the under surface of a leaf having the edge 

 turned down, hiding it completely. 



In spring, when the plants begin to put forth new 

 leaves, usually in March, the larva wakes up, feeds, 

 and its growth is soon considerable, so that by the 

 end of the month it becomes nearly half an inch long ; 

 it continues to draw the leaves tightly together 

 around itself with a few threads, as it eats portions 

 out of them, and feeds secure from observation until 

 about the middle of April or the end of the first week 

 in May, according to the season, when it is full-fed, 

 though now, and a little before this period, many 

 a larva is slain by that of an ichneumon emerging from 

 the mere skin, which directly afterwards shrivels up. 



The full-grown larva measures three-quarters of an 



