114 P0LY0MMATUS (LYOJINA) MOOTS. 



eating they wandered away, or fell off on to the earth 

 below, where it was impossible to find them. 



Meanwhile we had not been idle in ventilating the 

 subject among our friends, in what seemed a forlorn 

 hope of obtaining a clue to the proper food-plant, 

 when fortunately at this critical juncture, Mr. Double- 

 day kindly gave us the benefit of his excellent memory 

 and observation, in recalling the fact of his having 

 seen, twenty years ago, this little butterfly in some 

 place flitting over Genista anglica and Omithopus 

 perpusillus, and that on the latter plant he had noticed 

 females alight. 



In the midst of my trouble at losing the young larvae 

 daily, and being unable to find the desired Omithopus, 

 I fortunately happened to mention the subject to Dr. 

 F. B. White, of Perth, and he with great good nature 

 and promptitude despatched me a tin full of the plants. 

 These were at once potted and sprinkled with water, 

 the remaining six or seven eggs put on them in a 

 sunny window, and in a day or two, by aid of a lens, 

 the young larvae were soon detected. By the 3rd of 

 May some small transparent blotches were visible on 

 the leaflets on which they had fed, and from that time 

 all went well ; after Mr. Hudson's attention had been 

 directed to Omithopus perpusillus, he satisfied himself 

 that in his locality the butterfly did not occur away 

 from that plant ; so it seems there is little doubt of its 

 being the natural food. 



When first hatched the larva was about three-fourths 

 of a line long, thick in proportion, of equal bulk, and 

 rounded at either end, hairy and of a dull bluish-green 

 colour, its powers of locomotion of the very feeblest 

 description. 



By the 3rd of May they had become rather more 

 than a line in length, of a drab colour, and hairy like 

 the leafets on which they were feeding. By the 29th 

 of May they were from a quarter to three-eighths of 

 an inch in length, but still did not eat through the 

 leaflets, but only devoured the green cuticle. At this 



