124 THYMELE ALVEOLUS. 



settling itself along the midrib, at once spins several 

 silken threads overhead for a covering, under which it 

 feeds by eating away the upper cuticle ; and when it 

 has made a blotch of some little extent, it moves away 

 and repeats the process on another leaf ; as it grows 

 bigger, still choosing the upper surface of a leaf for its 

 standpoint, it forms its covering by drawing down 

 another leaf over it, fastening the edges here, and there 

 with stout threads, and feeds away in the cave thus 

 formed ; when, however, it has attained some size I 

 think it must come out of its cave and eat the neigh- 

 bouring leaves in the usual way, but I only once or 

 twice saw either of my larvas thus exposed of its own 

 choice ; the habit throughout the larval state is to be 

 very sluggish, and a great part of the time must be 

 passed by the larva in resting with its head curled 

 round sideways towards its tail. 



In the very limited time I could devote to searching 

 for larvge, I found numbers of deserted caves, but only 

 one tenanted, and this seemed to prove that my 

 examples in confinement acted pretty much as they 

 would have had they been at large. As mentioned 

 above, I gave the butterflies bramble sprays to lay on, 

 and I searched brambles for the larvae, and came to 

 the conclusion that stunted bushes with small leaves had 

 the preference, the large juicy leaves of strong bushes 

 apparently offering no temptation. 



I did not omit to look for the other plants on which 

 the larva has been said to feed ; in the same locality 

 were some half dozen plants of mallow (Malva mos- 

 chata), but I am positive they bore no traces of larvas, 

 and there was not one plant of teazle. The wild 

 strawberry (Fragaria vesca) has been suggested also 

 as a likely plant, and I think it would probably occur 

 wherever the butterfly is seen; but, as far as I feel 

 justified in giving an opinion, I do not think there is 

 any need to look for anything more than the bramble 

 (Bubus fruticosus) . * 



* I fear I was too positive here as to bramble being the usual food 



