■igg [October 
then being of a pale greenish tint ; after its first moult it becomes browner-gi-een, 
and about the midclle of July attaches itself to the stem of the plant, and ceases 
to feed. 
On one occasion I prevented this early beginning of hybernation by keeping a 
larva in a hot sunny window, and at the end of July I had the satisfaction of seeing 
it half-an-inch long ; it was then black and spiny, with a faint indication of a dul] 
whitish stripe along the sides above the feet, but unluckily, after its hybernatior 
commenced, it was killed by mould settling on it j and up to last spring this was 
all I had to record. 
But on April 1st, 1868, I had the indescribable pleasure of receiving a larva o; 
this species, most kindly presented to me by Mr. W. H. Harwood, of Colchester 
and which he had found during a walk through a wood ; his attention -having beei 
for a moment arrested by a leaf of primrose being much eaten, and, on turning i 
up, he detected the larva adhering to it. 
Prom its size and appearance being similar to the one above-mentioned, I fel 
sanguine in having now a chance of observing and rearing a larva to the perfec 
state. When received it was barely half-an-inch long, covered with spines an( 
black, excepting a stripe formed of whitish freckles running along above the legs 
but on the thoracic segments only were they so thick as to make the stripe appea 
there much whiter than on the others. 
A very faint edging of greyish rendered visible the black dorsal stripe. 
The spines and legs black, and large in proportion j the prolegs of a dar] 
smoky tint, inclining to reddish. 
It at first refused to eat when placed on growing plants of dog-violet am 
primrose, but within twenty-eight hours it moulted ; and then when the sun shon 
on it, its appetite returned. Its pace when walking was very rapid ; and sometime 
it fed for a while on the dog-violet leaves, and sometimes rested quite still, baskini 
in the sun's rays ; when these were withdrawn it retired to the under-side of a lea! 
and there remained, apparently without motion, till the hour (viz., 2 p.m) of th 
next day which brought the sun round to the window in which its cage was placec 
and then at once it came forth and actively walked about— fed and basked a 
before. After a few days it began to appear unwell, ceased to feed, remained o 
the earth, and kept out of sight for about four or five days. 
Towards evening of April 12th it re-appeared, and rejoiced me gi'catly h 
ehowing itself on the side of its glass cylinder in a new coat of black velvet, orni 
mented with a sub-dorsal row of bright greenish-yellow spines with black tips aD 
branches, all the other spines being wholly black ; the prolegs now appeared dt 
pinkish. 
By the 16th of April its pale stripe above the legs had become visible, bt 
greyish in tint, the whitest portion being on the third and fourth segments ; tl 
whole of the back remaining of a deep velvety-blackness. The greyish-white strij 
above the legs is formed by a series of whitish spots with black centres, and i 
they are more or less aggregated, so the appearance is whiter or greyer. Th 
anterior legs black ; prolegs black, with their tips brownish and semi-transpareni 
the ventral surface brownish-black. 
Towards the end of April it attained its full dimensions— about an inch loD] 
and rather thick when in repose, but wLon stretched out and walking, one inch ar 
