1809.] 



279 



head and upper surface of body black, with a double dorsal stripo of pale yellow, 

 and a stripe of same colour above tho legs ; the belly and prologs deep olive-brown. 

 Unfortunately it died when about to moult, and though at the tinae I reported it 

 as an immature V. cardui, yet my figure remained doubtful. 



This then was my enigma — to settle whether this larva was cardui or not. 



In the last week of September, 1868, the Kev. E. Horton sent me some of a 

 number of larva) he had recently taken, varying considerably in growth, but all 

 quite similar to the one above described, and found also on the same food, MaVva 

 sylveatris. The mallow plants were growing chiefly on tho top of a hilly grass 

 field near a hedge, and Bome in a clover field on the other side of the hedge, all 

 witliin a radius of fifty yards ; and Mr. Horton's attention was arrested by tho 

 mixed-up appearance of certain of the leaves. 



On examination, he found the edges of some were drawn together by threads 

 into a kind of purse, each containing a larva ; and he noticed that in every case 

 but one, the larva was eating away the upper-surface of the leaf within the purse. 

 The youngest of those I had the pleasure to receive from Mr. Horton on the 25th 

 of September was precisely like the figure taken in 1865, but had attained nearly 

 an inch in length, and showed indications of a narrow, short, oblique yellow streak 

 from near each spiracle backwards, and the tips of the yellow spines were black. 



After moulting, the change in its appearance was very great ; and its manner 

 of constructing a kind of tent by spinning three or four mallow leaves together, 

 and its habit of feeding concealed therein until its ravages had partly exposed it to 

 view, and then abandoning its ruined abode and making another with fresh leaves, 

 reminded me so much of Atalanta, that I now began to think I had been quite 

 wrong in supposing the species to be ca/rdui. 



The growth was very rapid, the primrose-yellow and the black spines were 

 replaced by others uniformly of a dirty greenish-yellow tint ; the whole skin of 

 the upper part of the body was now black, but the extraordinary and puzzling 

 feature now assumed was a dense covering of pale grey hairs, nearly as long as 

 the spines, and almost hiding them ; such «, combination I had not seen before, but 

 here I had larvae both spiny and hairy. 



I will here confine myself to the details of one, which will do for all the others. 



October 9th, larva full grown, about If inch long, and moderately stout in 

 proportion ; the second segment bearing only two spines, snb-spiracular in position ; 

 the third and fourth each bearing four spines, sub-dorsal and spiracular ; but all the 

 other segments, save the thirteenth, bearing seven spines, of which the middle or 

 dorsal one stands a little in advance of the rest, close to the front edge of each 

 segment ; all these spines were branched and bulbed at the base, and the sub- 

 spiracular series formed the centres of fascicles of hairs nearly as long as them- 

 selves. The body blackish above, with a deep black dorsal stripe, and a primrose- 

 yellow stripe running above the legs, but hardly indicated on the thoracic 

 segments ; the belly and ventral legs deep olive-brown, marked with golden- 

 ochreous, generally much hidden from view by the grey hairs diverging from around 

 the base of each sub-spiracular spine, which there interrupts the before-mentioned 

 yellow stripe ; a little above the said stripe there is on each segment a slight 

 streak of yellow, sloping upwards to the segmental divisions. The spines arc dirty- 

 greenish in colour, with their bases showing slightly pinkish. 



