61 
From the various broods I paired the following :— 
1. — Orange S 
2. — ,, S 
3. — Banded s 
4 . — ,, i 
5. —Dark ,, j 
6. —Light ,, 
7. — (Banded j 
8. — | Same male 
X 
Yellow 
¥ 
X 
banded 
? 
X 
yellow 
¥ 
X 
banded 
? 
X 
dark 
1 1 
¥ 
X 
light 
11 
¥ 
X 
(banded 
¥ 
X 
1 yellow 
¥ 
The larvte of these broods hatched within two weeks ; when young 
they move about quickly, and are a delicate apple-green with a dark 
line running down the sides. When about four to eight weeks old 
they hang motionless in the air, two or three inches from the foodplant, 
remaining in this position for two or three hours at a stretch, usually 
about an hour after dark ; directly it is dark they start feeding 
for about an hour, and after this comes this aerial flight. I have 
watched and tried to find out the reason; the same thing occurs 
with S. abruptaria, H. spring aria, L. hirtaria, and several “ thorns.” 
I put many prunaria larvte out in my garden on different privet bushes. 
I found they all left the leaves during the day, crawled down towards 
the base of the bush and got between the forks of the stems. At 
nightfall they would ascend and feed for about an hour, then lower 
themselves down some three inches, hanging motionless in the air. 
I found they timed this suspension very well indeed, for after then, I 
found a host of small creatures—earwigs, spiders, beetles, etc., all of 
which prey on these young larvte, came up the stems for food, but when 
they found there was nothing to be had they shifted to other quarters. 
I saw several earwigs seize the young larvte; also a spider tried to 
descend the thread of a suspended larva, but it found it could not, so 
I placed the larva on a leaf and watched it. The spider soon discovered 
its prize, but did not make a dash for it as some spiders do; it walked 
round it a few times, and on closer examination I found it was spinning 
a web over it. Then the larva began to plunge about, but found it 
could not release itself, and soon became exhausted, when the spider 
seized him and made a pleasant meal, after which 1 finished him. I 
found some spiders left their meal till next day, the lame then being 
almost dead, and much easier to tackle. 
All larvae went into hybernation at the beginning of September, 
1903, and were examined from time to time, taking strict precautions 
not to let any earwigs get into the sleeves. Onwards to March of this 
year the weather has been one long spell of wet and cold. Almost 
every night during February, 1904, we had a severe frost, which made 
the sleeves quite stiff and white. A glance into one of the sleeves to¬ 
day, March 12th, 1904, leads me to expect plenty of dead larvte; during 
the next two weeks they will all be shifted to fresh plants. I hope to 
let you know later in the season the results in 1904. 
