PHIBALAPTERYX LIGNATA. 79 



although, as shown above, G. moling o did not suit 

 them. But this is a point of taste in which this species 

 is not singular, for I have known some three or four 

 others which would change about from Galium verum 

 to G. saxatile and vice versa, but would not go so far 

 as to include G. mollugo in their bill of fare. 



It appears certain that there are two flights of the 

 moth, the first consisting of larger and finer indivi- 

 duals, and lasting from the end of May to some time 

 in July ; and the second of more stunted growth, on 

 the wing some time about the end of August. 



The second brood may be only partial, and may 

 depend more or less on the character of the summer. 

 But, whatever be the extent of it, it must be found 

 constantly in different localities. The date given 

 above for eggs — the 5th of September — points to a 

 second brood ; and Mr. Carrington, from the experi- 

 ence of former years, made sure of getting eggs a 

 second time last season, and sent me some on the 29th 

 of August. 



The dates of the transformations observed by me 

 last year are as follows: — Mr. Birks sent me eggs, 

 which arrived in the shape of young larvae on the 18th 

 of July. They fed up very rapidly, and began to spin 

 on the 5th of August, and on the 20th I bred several 

 moths. These I could not get to pair, so Mr. Carring- 

 ton, as mentioned above, forwarded eggs on the 29th 

 of August. The larvaa hatched on the 3rd of Septem- 

 ber, but, owing to my inability to supply them with 

 fresh food in sufficient quantity (for Galium saxatile is 

 not plentiful here), dwindled away and died ; and I 

 thus lost the opportunity of deciding whether hyber- 

 nation takes place in the pupal or in the larval stage. 



The egg is bluntly oval in outline, flattened, and with 

 a shallow depression on the upper surface, pitted very 

 shallowly all over ; in colour pale yellowish, turning 

 leaden at last. The newly hatched larva is noticeably 

 slender, dusky olive in colour, with brownish head. 



For a time it remains of a dusky pale green, but 



