1869.) 227 



oflf from the twig at an angle of about 40°, being divided along the mid-rib for 



about -j^jj inch fi'om the tip, — thus forming two littlo hare's ears as it were, — and 

 from them up to the twig, having its two edges firmly spun together ; just at the 

 point where this half of the leaf meets the under-side of the twig there is a cir- 

 cular aperture, apparently designed by the larva for its egress in the spring. 



As the leaf withers, the hybernaculum assumes a puckered fusiform shape, 

 scarcely more than half-an-inch in length, being convex on the upper outline, and 

 scarcely concave below ; with the middle irregularly swollen, and the little hare's 

 ears hanging apart j but I am sure, from the firmness with which the whole struc- 

 ture is fixed to the twig, it could not have swung with an independent motion of 

 its own. Its natural appearance of a small shrivelled leaf clinging to the dry stem 

 would readily escape ordinary observation. 



On waking in April, sooner or later, acording to the season, the little occupant 

 leaves its abode, but goes no farther than to the upper-side of the twig immediately 

 above the aperture it has quitted, and at this time is about three lines long, 

 spiny, and is wholly of a reddish-brown colour. 



Its first proceeding is now to cast ofi" its winter coat, and accordingly it attaches 

 itself to a spinning of silk on the twig, and by degrees crawls out of its old skin> 

 which is left adhering to the silk, not shrivelled up, but still looking much like 

 a larva. 



It is now a much fresher looking creature ; and after feeding on the just 

 bursting buds of its twig, it is, by the beginning of May, half-an-inch long, brown 

 on the back, with spines of the same colour, and yellowish-white along the sides, 

 on which the blackish spiracles appear very distinct ; just above the ventral legs 

 it shows a reddish-brown stripe ; the legs and belly are rather paler brown. In a 

 few days it again moults, and then assumes a miniature resemblance of the adult 

 larva, as formerly described. — Id. 



Stray notes on Lepidoptera at Haslemere. — Being at Woolmer Forest on May 

 1st, and the season being forward, I had a look over the wild honeysuckle, and 

 soon found young larvae of Limenitis Sibylla, some only just moving from their 

 hybernacula, and still in their dark winter dress (which I leave to Mr. Buckler to 

 describe). A week later they were growing well, and larvae of Pericallia syringaria 

 appeared ; and I also found a bristly-looking green larva, with white dorsal lines 

 and a geometric aspect, which however, as it grew, became an exceedingly smooth 

 larva of a beautiful green with broad white dorsal and sub-dorsal fines, and with two 

 others, which I afterwards found produced lovely Plusia V-aureum in the beginning 

 of J une. In the meantime the larvae of syringaria had turned up not uncommonly, 

 and in most lovely variety j some very pale brown or drab, others a rich velvety 

 brown or dark red, and some of intermediate shades, while one of the light-coloured 

 specimens was blotched with green at the sides. 



These begun to spin on May 17th, and emerged early in June. How the 

 larva can enclose itself, dorsal hook and all, in a cocoon which shall fit tightly to 

 the proportionately small pupa, is a mystery ; but so tightly does it fit, that the 

 cast skin is only shuffled ofi" without being wrinkled up, and, as is well known, 

 remains like a long tail attached to the pupa. 



