2o8 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[October 



larvae, they had not changed their first skins, and were sitting on the 

 tops of the leaves. After the first moult they at once go down the 

 stem until they get to within about an inch and a half of the bottom, 

 and then eat the stem just half-way through, causing the parts of the 

 plant, above where it is bitten, to bend down, and soon to become half 

 dead and very soft ; on this part the larvae feed, and as the plant, 

 getting only a small supply of sap, is not able to grow up, the neigh- 

 bouring plants, in two or three days, overtop it and cover it up, so that 

 one cannot see it, until one looks well for it under the other plants. 

 One plant supplies food enough for a single larva ; for as soon as the 

 bent part is eaten the larva is full-fed, and it then descends to just 

 below where it has bitten the stem half through, where it is very short 

 and stiff", and attaches itself by the tail and changes to a pupa with its 

 head downwards." In the " Entomologist," Vol. IV., p. 306, Mr. 

 Gregson writes : — " The eggs are hatched in autumn, and the larvae 

 eat small round holes in the upper leaves of Teucvium scorodonia grow- 

 ing in sheltered places. They appear in winter as small oval tufts of 

 whitish hair, attached to the underside of the leaves. Early in the 

 spring they move, and eat into the young shoots of the food plant, and 

 in a few days afterwards, if the season is fine, they may be seen on the 

 upper side of the young leaves casting their skins, and then .they 

 appear like oblong pinkish bundles of hair. They now begin to eat 

 freely, previous to the next change, and may be easily found, often 

 two or three, sometimes more, upon each side of their food-plant, 

 always on the upper side of the terminal leaves. In a few days they 

 move down the stem, and eat a smali round hole in it, about 

 two joints down, which soon causes the tips of the plant to droop, and 

 near this cover they remain for some weeks, eating the young growing 

 leaves around them, until they appear as whitish-green living larvae, 

 with a retractile head, attenuate to the anus, four to five lines long, 

 and change in May and June to a pinkish and green, which becomes 

 eventually a brown pupa, attaching itself by the tail upon anything 

 near." 



Pupa — The pupae, like the larvae, vary somewhat in colour, being 

 sometimes pale pinkish, at other times pale green, and occasionally 

 brown, with intermediate varieties, but the pale forms all become 

 darker just before emergence. The dorsal area is covered with 

 minute hairs as in the larval stage. It may be found in May and 



