Oe, BOARMIA ABIETARIA. 
the ventral surface dark brown with paler lines; it is 
now rigid and stick-like, and as it has the habit of 
drawing the anterior legs up in a bunch close to the 
head, and as the anal legs are stout and thick, it 
has the appearance of being stoutest at each end. 
During the winter it seems to grow a little, and 
towards the approach of spring its length varies from 
half an inch to five-eighths, and the stoutness in pro- 
portion ; as it approaches full growth its ravages be- 
come apparent; it often eats away all the leaves on one 
side of a yew stem before attacking those on the oppo- 
site side; and when it has quite stripped the end of a - 
twig it still keeps to the bare stick as a comfortable 
resting-place, returning to it, even after feeding at 
some distance, by help of the strong silk thread 
attached to the twig from its spinneret, just as in its 
more juvenile days; at this more mature age, however, 
the thread is not easily broken, and always drawn 
forth in its leisurely progress, both on leaving and - 
regaining its bare stem, to stretch itself along it at 
full length, and embrace it with its legs as it settles 
itself for a day’s sleep; it seems to be only at night 
that it feeds or moves unless disturbed, for when I 
had three or four examples asleep on twigs openly 
before me for many hours, no movement occurred 
beyond the mere expulsion of a pellet of frass at inter- 
vals; probably, at large, on a yew tree, it would be 
completely hidden from view. | 
The full-grown larva measures an inch and a halfin 
length, and about three-sixteenths, or nearly, in dia- 
meter throughout, though the head 1s a little less than 
the second segment, its lobes rounded and well defined 
on the crown; the segmental divisions are indicated by 
a fold of the skin; beyond the thoracic segments each 
has two faint wrinkles anteriorly across the back, and 
three or four towards the end, rather deeper on the 
sides, where the skin is much puffed and puckered, 
especially along the spiracular region; the muscles of 
the ventral and anal legs largely developed ; the tuber- 
