1880.1 
20 
and beautifully iridescent ; on the fifth day t lie embryo was distinctly 
visible, on the eighth day the ocelli could be seen, on the tenth the 
mandibles plainly, the segmental divisions and dorsal canal slightly, 
and on the twelfth day the black head and plate on the second segment 
showed most plainly, indeed, the slow undulating movement in the 
alimentary canal could be distinctly traced ; about 10 o’clock the same 
night, June 27th, they began to hatch, and the little larva) were all out 
of the shells before next mornim? 
O * 
Ihe colour of the larva when first hatched is creamy -white with 
black head and plate. Fortunately I had growing plants of Solidago 
virgaurea , Origanum vulgare , and other species, from which I at once 
gathered leaves to see what they would take as food ; but at first they 
weie too restless, crawling upward and trying to escape from under 
the glass cover of the pot ; but next day I noticed one larva had 
attacked a leaf of Solidago by eating a small hole partly through it ; 
subsequently other leaves were similarly eaten into, and by the begin- 
ning of July they evidently preferred the golden rod and marjoram.” 
ith this account Mr. Jeffrey kindly forwarded to me a dozen of 
the larvae on the 3rd of July, just as they had completed their first 
moult, and were then not quite a tenth of an inch long, having a glossy 
black head and collar-plate, a whitish pellucid skin, bearing blackish- 
brown dots, and a broad yellowdsh-green internal vessel showing 
through. 
On the 8th of July I found they had moulted for the second time 
and become less transparent, excepting the belly which remained much 
as before though slightly yellower, while the body above w r as darker 
and rather dingy green, the head, the plate and dots shining brownish- 
black. 
They lived contentedly but well apart from each other, and when 
preparing for the third moult spun little hammock-shaped silk webs on 
the uncler-side of the leaves, or between leaves slightly uniting the 
surfaces. 
After the third moult, on July 17th, I w r as at first astonished at 
not seeing the larvae, until I became aware that they were inhabiting 
little cases, which they had made for themselves with portions cut from 
the leaves of their food plants ; some of the cases w r ere lying loose 
among the leaves, though one or two at first were still adhering to the 
leaves by a small part not cut aw r ay ; on turning out a larva two days 
Inter I saw its back and sides w r ere deeply tinged with dark purplish- 
brown. 
Henceforward the larva? were not easily observed, as they w^ere 
