NEPHOPTERYX ROBORELLA. 257 



These larvae live under a covering of silk web 

 which they spin for themselves, but they are by no 

 means gregarious, as I soon found by the death of 

 three bitten by their companions. 



The larva when full-grown measures one inch in 

 length ; the back and sides are dark purplish-brown ; 

 the fine dorsal line is of the same colour running 

 between two lines of pale freckles, that is to say of a 

 very light tint of the same colour ; three other still 

 finer lines of pale freckles follow on either side; the 

 lowest of these is distinct throughout, but the two 

 above are much less distinct after passing the sixth 

 or eighth segment, but can here and there be just 

 traced on the other segments ; the dark parts of the 

 two last segments are lighter towards the back. The 

 pale freckles on the back are in several instances 

 dirty pinkish. The dorsal line as above described 

 begins on the plate of the second segment, which is 

 slightly glistening, as is the head, but all the rest of 

 the body is very dull ; the plate is dark purplish-brown 

 with rather paler front margin ; the head is dark 

 purplish-brown with a paler streak across the upper 

 lip ; the papillae are pale with dark purplish-brown 

 tips ; the anterior legs are dark purplish-brown and 

 glistening ; beneath the dark colouring the spiracular 

 region and all the belly is light pinkish-brown ; a row 

 or line of very much paler freckles than any on the 

 back edges the dark colour of the side ; then come 

 the spiracles, and then another line of the paler 

 freckles (the whole lower surface is freckled with 

 paler) ; the spiracles are of the light ground finely 

 outlined with dark or blackish ; the ocellated spot on 

 the third and the twelfth segments is ringed with 

 black having a dirty whitish [? centre — word missing 

 in original] ; the very palest freckles are cream-colour ; 

 the tubercular dots are blackish, too small to be 

 noticeable except the single row (over the spiracles) 

 at the lower edge of the dark colouring. The tuber- 

 cular dots are a little surrounded with paler. 

 VOL. ix. 17 



