128 ACIDALIA DEGENERARIA. 
growing plants of dandelion, Veronica polita, and 
Plantago lanceolata, covered with coarse muslin and 
kept in a window seat facing west, in a room without 
fire; by this date they had grown to eight lines in 
length, and were rather darker than before. 
By the middle of February, 1872, I observed the 
plants in a dying condition, and a few indications of 
mould generating amongst the withered leaves, which, 
however, had not attacked the larve, resting as they 
were on the sides of the pot. I now took them out 
and placed them in a new abode; and the weather 
soou after being severe, I put them in another room 
with a fire, in order to try them with bramble, and 
soon had the pleasure of seeing them nibble at it, and 
also at Cerastium and Veronica, though the bramble 
seemed to be preferred. Satisfied with this experiment, 
I then restored them to their former colder quarters, 
where they did very well, feeding a little from time to 
time whenever the severity of the weather relaxed a 
ttle, and by March 7th two of them had quite out- 
stripped their companions in growth, and by the 13th 
had attained apparently their full size, still, however, 
feeding a little until April, on the 15th of which 
month they assumed the pupa state; another followed 
their example on the 26th, one on May 8th, one more 
on the 26th, the last on June 30th; the four earliest 
appeared in the imago state from June 14th to 24th, 
and a fifth moth appeared on the 14th of July. 
When about to change, the larva drew around it 
with a few fine threads a leaf of bramble or Veronica, 
or any withered bit of leaf or moss it found on the 
surface of the soil, and changed therein. 
After hybernation they seemed to have lost the 
power of curling up when disturbed, but now seemed 
to feign death by extreme rigidity, allowing them- 
selves to be turned over and rolled about without 
betraying life by any movement; their natural posture, 
too, in repose on their food-plants was straight and 
stick-like. 
