PHYTOMETRA ^NBA. 137 



shell, down to the flat under surface, covered with a 

 most beautifully regular three-cornered reticulation, so 

 exactly designed that, wherever the eye rests, it in- 

 voluntarily forms hexagons out of half-dozens of the 

 triangles. Each of the knots at the angles of the net- 

 work is furnished with a comparatively longish curved 

 spine ; the colour of the shell is whitish, mottled with 

 long blotches of pale pink, which are disposed hori- 

 zontally round the egg; the lines of triangular net- 

 work are pink, the spines pink with brown tips. A 

 short time before the larva is hatched the egg becomes 

 purplish all over. 



To the present date this is the most remarkable egg 

 I have seen, and whilst contemplating its spiny orna- 

 mentation one cannot help being reminded of old 

 Gilbert White's remarks on the parturition of hedge- 

 hogs ! (Letter xxxi, to Thos. Pennant, Esq.). 



Of the larva I have nothiug fresh now to say. 



The cocoon, made of a tough texture of greyish- 

 white silk, is not quite half an inch long, and about 

 three-sixteenths of an inch wide, with a few outside 

 threads to draw round the surrounding leaves, etc. 

 The pupa is nearly three-eighths of an inch long, 

 cylindrical, slender, and remarkably even in bulk 

 throughout (reminding one in this respect of the pupa 

 of an Hepialus), blunt at the head, the abdominal 

 rings deeply cut, the last segment alone tapering, and 

 ending in a blunt tip with two extremely short blunt 

 spikes ; the colour on the head and wing-cases a rich 

 olive-tinted brown, on the rest of the body a bright 

 reddish-brown ; the skin rather glossy. (John Hellins, 

 September 20th, 1873 ; E.M.M., November, 1873, 

 X, 139.) 



VOL* VI* ]Q 



