PTEROPHOKTJS ACANTHODACTYLUS. 351 



Fletcher's, five specimens, the first appearing on the 

 21st of September. It seems almost inexplicable that 

 this year Mr. Bankes should collect no P. cosmodac- 

 tylus larvae whatever, for he retained a good many 

 himself, and when writing me early in September, he 

 had up to that time bred forty specimens, all P. acan- 

 thodactylus I 



Description. — The larva is in shape exactly like that 

 of P. cosmodactylus, as described in the E.M.M., Yol. 

 XXII, p. 150. As in that species, there are two distinct 

 forms, and intermediate varieties occur partaking 

 more or less of each of these extreme forms. 



Var. 1 has the ground colour deep purple ; the head 

 is yellowish-grey or yellowish-brown, marked on the 

 crown and sides with black ; the mandibles are brown ; 

 the medio-dorsal stripe is smoke-coloured ; the sub- 

 dorsal lines, and another line of equal width below it, 

 white, but interrupted and not very conspicuous ; and 

 below these is another scarcely so pale line along the 

 spiracles ; the hairs and the distinct tubercles are 

 white. The ventral surface and the prolegs are 

 greenish-olive, the anterior legs shining black, ringed 

 with paler. 



Var. 2 has the ground colour bright pale green; the 

 head is as in Var. 1; the pulsating dark smoky vessel — 

 in some specimens tinged with pink anteriorly — 

 forms the dorsal stripe ; the subdorsal lines are 

 indistinct, whitish ; below these is another line, but 

 much interrupted and broken into short lengths ; 

 there are no lines along the spiracular region ; the 

 hairs and tubercles are white. The ventral surface 

 and prolegs are of the bright green of the dorsal area, 

 and the legs are shining black, ringed with white. 



From the foregoing it will be noted, that the chief 

 points of distinction between this insect and P. cosmo- 

 dactylics — distinctions which will probably be found to 

 be reliable — are : the deep purple ground colour in P. 

 acanthodactylus, as compared with the " purplish- 

 pink " of P. cosmodactylus ; the white subdorsal lines 



