APATURA IRIS. 49 



leaf, the anterior legs drawn in close to the body ; 

 sometimes all the ventral legs, and sometimes only the 

 third and fourth pair in addition to the anal pair, had 

 a footing on the silk. When hungry, the larva would 

 quit this, make a rapid meal, and return again to rest. 

 Some leaves were so ravaged that only the mid-ribs 

 were left. Once I was rather surprised to see the 

 larva No. 2 eat off a large strip from one side of its 

 silk-covered resting leaf, together with the silk on it, 

 but leave the rest untouched. 



Towards the end of September, a week of suddenly 

 severe cold weather killed my two large larvae just as 

 they seemed about to pupate, and unluckily before I 

 could remove them to a hothouse ; the year had not 

 ended, when the third smaller larva, of which I had 

 great hopes, as being in a more natural state of 

 hibernation, died also. (W. B., 3, 4, 76; E.M.M. 

 XIII, 3.) 



Cynthia cakdui. 

 Plate VIII, fig. 1. 



The following is the account of a curious variety of 

 the larva of this species : 



On the 17th of July, 1865, Dr. Knaggs sent me 

 (from Folkestone) a larva he had found feeding on 

 mallow (Malva sylvestris). It was then half-an-inch 

 long, with seven rows of spines, all black in colour, 

 except those in the dorsal and subdorsal rows on the 

 sixth, eighth, and tenth segments, which were pale 

 primrose-yellow ; the head and upper surface of the 

 body black, with a double dorsal stripe of pale yellow, 

 and a stripe of the same colour above the legs ; the 

 belly and prolegs deep olive-brown. Unfortunately, it 

 died when about to moult, and though at the time I 

 reported it as an immature G. cardui, yet my figure 

 remained doubtful in my mind. 



vol. I. 4 



