PLUSIA BBAOTEA. 103 



Plusia BRACTEA. 

 Plate CII, fig. 4. 



I received thirty-six eggs of Plusia bractea from Dr. 

 F. Buchanan White on the 1st of August, 1872. 



The egg is hemispherical above, but flattened and 

 slightly depressed beneath ; the upper surface is finely 

 ribbed and reticulated ; below, it is smooth and glisten- 

 ing. Its colour is a greenish yellowish white. 



The eggs the day before hatching (on the 7th) be- 

 came whity-brown, and a blotch at the top appeared, 

 composed of minute brown specks. 



The young larvae were whitish with whity-brown 

 heads, each segment with a transverse row of blackish 

 dots bearing dusky hairs, but these dots and hairs 

 very faintly visible with a strong lens. 



The larvse fed at first and throve well on groundsel 

 up to the end of August, when they had attained the 

 length of three-eighths of an inch, and then they began 

 to show a dislike to their food and to die off. Some were 

 placed on Lamium maculatum, which they partook of 

 and looked better, but towards the end of September, 

 they died off by twos and threes, and the last indivi- 

 dual died on the 4th of October. (William Buckler, 

 October, 1872; N.B., I, 137.) 



April 24th, 1873. — Some of this brood Mr. George 

 Norman, of Forres, had fed on stinging-nettle with 

 success as long as the food was procurable ; after- 

 wards, at my suggestion, on Lamium purpureum, on 

 which food he succeeded in bringing ^.ye or six through 

 the winter. On the above date I received from him 

 the loan of a fine healthy example fed up to the verge of 

 its final moult. At this time it was seven-eighths of an 

 inch long, and stout in proportion, tapering rapidly and 

 considerably from the fourth segment to the head, which 

 is much the smallest segment. Its colour was a pale 

 tint of yellowish-green, becoming rather whitish-green 

 on the hinder dorsal surface ; its lines whitish but 



