



NYSSIA LAPPONARIA. 15 
resembling the colour of the birch stems. (Mr. 
Christy, referring to this colour variation in a letter 
recently receivedfrom him, says: ‘‘‘I'he ground colour 
varies considerably ; | have had them dark purplish- 
brown, so that they matched the birch twigs; and I 
have had them almost putty-coloured.”’) The first larva 
buried for pupation on the 27th June, having remained 
in the larval state forty-two days. 
The pupa is six-tenths of an inch in length; 
the head and thorax uniformly rounded in front ; 
round the middle of the wings it is rather contracted ; 
the fifth abdominal segment, including the apical 
portion of the wings, 1s swollen, the remainder of the 
abdomen being attenuated; the posterior segment 
terminates in a slightly curved conical point, cleft at 
the end; on the same segment at either side is also a 
short point. ‘The entire surface is finely granulated, 
the head, thorax, and abdomen of a deep red-brown ; 
the wings, antennes, and leg cases are light sienna-red ; 
the eye cases are rather conspicuousand blackish. It 
has no cocoon, being simply buried an inch or two 
under the surface of the earth. 
Mr. Christy has kindly communicated the following : 
The ovipositor of the female moth is very long, 
quite a quarter of aninch. The eggs were laid 
through some green leno; several folds of it had been 
tucked inside a chip box, and the eggs were laid be- 
tween the leno and the box. The female must be able 
to push her eggs into any chink or crevice quite out of 
harm’s way. I have noticed that Amphidasis prodro- 
maria, A. betularia, and Nyssia hispidaria all like to 
deposit their eggs in the same way, that is, pushed a 
long way into some narrow chink, or between folds of 
muslin or leno. The eggs are laid in a rough untidy 
batch, sometimes somewhat overlapping one another, 
precisely after the manner of N. hispidaria, and to the 
naked eye they are in size and shape exactly like those 
of that species, but the colour is different. (F. W. 
Frohawk; Hnt., September, 1895, XXVIII, 237.) 
