ASTHENA BLOMERI. Va 
days, and now, as I write (August 14th), all are in 
their last skin, and several nearly full-fed. 
Last year (1873) I had the eggs during the last 
week of July and the first week of August, the larva 
hatching from July 30th onwards, but living only a 
day or two; the larve, nearly full-fed, were captured 
during the last week in September, and the survivors 
among them changed to pupee in a few days. 
From the manner in which the moth deposits her 
egos in any crevice in the chip-box, I imagine that in 
freedom she would arrange them in small batches along 
the ribs on the under side of the leaves, which in the 
wych elm are very prominent, and I noticed that the 
larvee prefer to remain on the under-side of the leaves 
throughout their existence, carefully spinning a thread 
wherever they move; in feeding, at first they eat only 
the under surface of the leaf, but by the time they are 
a quarter of an inch long they eat holes quite through 
the leaves, generally avoiding the ribs, at last reducing 
them almost to skeletons. 
The ege is small, somewhat brick-shaped, being long 
and flattened, but one end is squarer and thicker than 
the other; the shell glistening, and covered with a 
diamond pattern of sunk lines, each diamond having a 
central sunken dot (the egg of A. candidata has also 
this character of being embossed, as it were, by a 
pattern of sunk lines); the colour is at first pale, 
afterwards rich deep yellow, with the edges still 
deeper, and a red tinge near the bigger end; at last 
becoming again quite pale, but with a dark spot. 
The young larva escapes by eating out one end of 
the egg; in colour it is whitish, with a purplish tinge 
in the front segments from the ternal organs showing 
through; as it grows it becomes quite shining white ; 
after the first moult it is glassy-looking and trans- 
lucent, with an internal green stripe through the body, 
probably caused by the presence of food; when about 
three-eighths of an inch long it is more opaque, with 
the back whitish-green, a broad dark green subdorsal 
