PLUSIA IOTA. 109 



as are the parts of the mouth. The anterior legs are 

 also jet-black ; the dorsal line is a little darker, rather 

 bluish- green, narrowing and then widening about the 

 middle, where it is crossed by a whitish streak, and 

 from thence it narrows again to the end of each 

 segment. This is bordered with greenish-white or 

 whitish (pure white only when younger to half growth) 

 followed closely by another such bordering, but this is 

 interrupted by the anterior tubercle on each side, and 

 at a short distance is an interrupted or broken finer 

 subdorsal undulating line, broken by the hinder tuber- 

 cular wart, followed by a few fine scattered specks ; 

 midway between this and the fine clear yellowish- 

 white spiracular line the green colour of the ground is 

 deeper like that of the belly and ventral legs ; the 

 spiracles, just beneath this line, are very small, oval, 

 flesh-colour, delicately outlined with black ; along the 

 sides and on the ventral legs are scattered a few 

 whitish specks. The whitish borderings to the vas- 

 cular dorsal line are very soft in character, and seem 

 almost to melt one into the other. On the thoracic 

 segments the green ground-colour is a little deeper 

 than the rest, and has less of the whitish markings on 

 it; each of the small wart-like tubercles is furnished 

 with a fine pale hair ; the hairs proceeding from the 

 head are dusky. The antennal papillse are translucent 

 green with a double ring of black round the middle ; 

 the ornamentation on the back is whitish-yellow. 



The larva spins a cocoon of an inch in length and 

 five-eighths or even three-quarters of an inch in width, 

 supported between the stalk and leaves of the food- 

 plant. The cocoon is very thin, of a pale greyish 

 dirty whitish tint and semi-transparent, so that the 

 pupa can be seen within it. 



The pupa itself is three-quarters of an inch in 

 length and rather stout, and on the thorax squarish in 

 outline, with the head-piece a conical projection 

 beyond ; the wing-cases at their ends and trunk 

 together form a blunt convex projection low on the 



