138 PAMPHILA ACTION. 



is almost as wide; the top of the head is a trifle 

 flattened, and has a beak -like process projecting 

 forwards of a flattened triangular shape, its base lying 

 across the head between the eyes ; the abdomen tapers 

 very gradually towards the anal portion, which ends 

 in a prolonged and blunt flattened tip, furnished with 

 a circlet of exceedingly minute recurved hooks. The 

 wings, antennas, and legs are plainly developed, and 

 the proboscis is extended at full length down the 

 abdomen, from which it lies wholly free towards its 

 extremity. 



Its colouring at first, and up to within four days of 

 the advent of the imago, closely resembles that of the 

 last larval period, viz. a very pale and delicate yellowish- 

 green, on which all the lines of the larva, though faint, 

 are distinctly to be seen. The first indication of its 

 approaching change is a gradual suffusion of pink over 

 the thorax, which, with the wing covers, in twenty- 

 four hours becomes of a dingy greyish- purple hue, the 

 back of the abdomen a light brownish- olive tint, the 

 divisions appearing as paler rings, the beak and tail 

 purplish-grey. In this advanced stage the change of 

 colour is considerable even in an hour or two ; it grows 

 by degrees deeper olive on the back of the abdomen 

 with a dingy purple dorsal stripe; as the body and 

 thorax darken to purplish-black, so in proportion do 

 the frontal and caudal projections fade away to a 

 greyish ashy paleness, and become semi-transparent, as 

 though empty ; finally, the surface becomes as though 

 covered generally with a misty reddish-grey bloom. It 

 is in the purple -blackish stage of colour that the fine 

 cincture, drawn tight round the front of the thorax, 

 and secured a little behind to each side of its abode by a 

 thickening of the silk, is most plainly seen by its 

 whiteness ; the few stout threads that cross over the 

 pupa at each end, more or less obliquely, do not touch 

 it at all, but serve as security for its habitation, and 

 possibly as protective outworks while it lies fastened on 

 its silken carpet. (W. B., 22, 7, 73 ; E.M.M. X, 86.) 



