56 HEPIALUS VELLEDA. 



blackish, and the plate on the second segment of a pale 

 brownish-orange, at each side blending gradually into 

 the ground colour of the body, which is of a whitish- 

 cream tint. The third and fourth segments have pale 

 brownish- orange plates on the back, viz. a large drop- 

 shaped one in the middle, extending from the back down 

 either side, with a shuttle-shaped one before it and a 

 similar one behind it ; a similarly coloured plate is on 

 the tip of the anal flap. 



The dorsal vessel is seen through the thoracic seg- 

 ments as a pulsating tortuous blackish streak. The 

 tubercular spots on the back are orange, each on an 

 eminence of the ground colour ; those on the sides are 

 small and dusky, and each is furnished with a highly 

 sensitive brown hair. The spiracles are black and 

 rather large in size. 



From near the end of April to the beginning or 

 middle of May, according to the season, the larva pro- 

 ceeds to spin a slight cocoon of silk, covered with light 

 earthy particles, amongst the loose vegetable soil, 

 in which it remains a pupa for about a month. 



The pupa of the male is about three-quarters, and 

 that of the female seven- eighths of an inch long, of a 

 uniform reddish-brown colour, thick in proportion 

 throughout. The tip of the abdomen is blunt and 

 rounded, the head slightly beaked, the segments deeply 

 cut ; a very prominent sharp ridge all round the twelfth 

 segment is furnished with short hooks curved back- 

 wards, and two rather prominent ridges with similar 

 hooks are on the back of the other abdominal segments. 

 These hooks are gradually larger as they approach the 

 hinder extremity, the tip of which is encircled with a 

 few blunt spikes. 



Beneath the abdomen, occupying the precise situa- 

 tion of the former prolegs of the larva, are pairs of 

 short ridges, finely hooked, playing still the part of 

 legs in the movements of the pupa, which, when feeling 

 its final transformation approaching, bursts through its 

 fragile cocoon and travels upwards till its wing-cases 



