4 DIANTH^O[A ALBIMAOULA. 



the capsules, of which Mr. Moncreaff kindly sent a 

 further supply, and when these dried up I found the 

 three younger larva3 (two having already turned to 

 pupse) take very well both to Silene inflata and to 

 8. maritima, and between the 14th and 25th of 

 August they retired into the soil prepared for them. 



The young larva when a quarter of an inch long is 

 of a greenish-grey colour, and darker than it after- 

 wards becomes ; at this time it has pale dorsal and 

 subdorsal lines, with a darker stripe along the 

 spiracles, bounded above by a paler undulating line ; 

 some faint darker marks along the back indicate the 

 rudiments of the future dorsal design ; a pale stripe 

 runs beneath the spiracles, and the belly is darker 

 greenish-grey. At its next moult, when about three- 

 eighths of an inch long, the ground-colour is either a 

 pale drab or pale ochreous-yellow with the design of 

 dark grey or blackish diamond shapes and spots on 

 the back tolerably distinct ; and when it has attained 

 the length of about three-quarters of an inch the whole 

 pattern of its markings is (as usual) more clearly 

 defined than at any other period, composed as they 

 are of closely aggregated greyish or blackish atoms, 

 which, as the larva grows, become more dispersed with 

 increasing intervals of the ground-colour between 

 them ; but in this clearly defined stage of marking the 

 ground-colour is yellowish-ochreous, the dorsal pattern 

 consisting of a somewhat ovate blackish spot at the 

 beginning, followed by a diamond- or pear- shape 

 extending to the end of each segment ; the front half 

 of each of these pears or diamonds is rather bare of 

 freckles within its outline, showing the ground-colour 

 there more or less, while the hinder part is filled up 

 so as to look blackish ; the anterior pairs of tubercular 

 black dots show distinct on the clear unfreckled 

 ground of the back ; the hinder pairs of dots are often 

 attached to the lateral angles of the diamond-shapes, 

 but not invariably so, though they are always touched 

 by a blackish line of freckles that curves or festoons 



