60 XYLINA RHIZOLITHA. 



Xylina RHTZOLITHA. 

 Plate XO VI, fig. 3. 



On the 26th April, 1874, I had the pleasure to 

 receive from Mr. J. E. Fletcher, of Worcester, a few- 

 eggs of this species, which were laid on the 21st and 

 22nd of the month ; and the larvse were hatched on 

 the first two days of May. 



At first, and for some time, they continued to feed 

 on the green cuticle of the tender young leaves of 

 oak ; but, as they grew, began at length to eat little 

 holes through them. 



The egg is small for the size of the moth, and in 

 shape is spherical, but a little flattened ; it cannot 

 strictly be called ribbed, but is covered with thirty- 

 five to forty longitudinal rows of pits in such regular 

 order that their sides form both shallow ribs and 

 transverse reticulations ; in the centre of the upper 

 surface is a button-like round spot ornamented with a 

 star of nine pairs of short raised lines. The colour at 

 first was almost white, the tinge of yellow being very 

 slight; on the third day this turned to dull pink, 

 afterwards blotched and streaked with pinkish-brown, 

 at last becoming wholly brown. 



The young larva is whitish with a buff-coloured 

 head, until after the first moult, when by aid of a lens 

 opaque white dots and hairs could be discerned on it. 

 When not quite three weeks old the larva is half an 

 inch long, of a greenish-white colour, showing dis- 

 tinctly the white raised dots and hairs. In four weeks 

 it is three-quarters of an inch long and stout in pro- 

 portion, of a rather pale bluish-green colour finely 

 freckled with whitish, and having slight indications of 

 dorsal and subdorsal lines ; by this time it feeds well, 

 eating through the leaves from the edges. 



The full-grown larva measures one inch and a 

 quarter in length, or a trifle more when stretched out 

 in walking. It is of uniform stoutness, and cylin- 



