126 ACIDALIA EMUTARIA. 
When full-fed the larva is about an inch in length, 
following the A. wmtaria type, v.e. long, cylindrical, 
slender, and tapering slightly towards the head; the 
skin evenly ringed; the head a little flattened above, 
and rounded at the sides. 
The colouring is so plain and dull in many of the 
Acidalia larve, that one fears a detailed description 
may give the idea of something much more ornamental 
than the reality ; and yet it is necessary to give the 
httle details in order to show how the various species 
differ. 
The ground colour of A. emutaria, then, 1s a pale 
ochreous-grey ; the dorsal line is a very fine whitish 
ochreous thread, distinct at the beginning of each 
segment, but soon almost extinguished by the union 
of the blackish lines which border it, and which shade 
off towards the subdorsal line through a brown into 
the ground colour, making the region of the back 
look darker than the sides; just at each segmental 
fold there is a pair of brown or blackish wedge-shaped 
spots; the subdorsal line 1s also a very fine whitish 
thread, edged below with a black line, which is most 
distinct about the middle of each segment, whence also 
some very fine oblique lines slope downwards behind 
each spiracle. 
The spiracles are black, and just below them comes 
a sooty-brown line shading off gradually into the pale 
grey of the centre of the belly. : 
Of the two larvz which I retained for myself, one 
spun up against the side of the flower-pot, covering 
itself with a thin but opaque flat web, into which it 
drew a few bits of moss, etc.; the other spun up on 
the surface of the earth in the pot, forming an irregu- 
lar oval cocoon as big as a horse-bean, and nearly 
covered with fine bits of earth and grains of sand; 
the pups: I did not examine until after the exit of the 
moths. (John Hellins, 29th July, 1867; H.M.M., 
September, 1867, IV, 88.) 
