48 
its skin, four times, at intervals of from 7 to 14 days. After the first 
moult the colour is not appreciably altered. After the second moult the 
head becomes dull black, and the body is adorned with a dorsal series 
of about six orange spots. The casting of the third skin reveals a more 
elaborate coat, the tubercles now becoming coloured and the whole body 
of a paler tint; the head is also marked with yellow. The only change 
after the last moult is that the head is much more suffused with yellow. 
When full-grown, the male larva is about If in. in length; the female 
about 2\ in. They are similarly marked. The head is of a rich 
orange colour, delicately mottled and irrorated with black and having 
two black stripes down the face. The body is black or grey, varying 
with the individual. On the back of each segment of the body are 
two tubercles, which emit short bristly hairs; and along each side 
of the larva are two rows of warts from which spring longer and 
softer hairs curving downwards. All the hairs are golden brown. 
The dorsal tubercles are dark blue on the first five segments, and 
blood-red on the remaining seven. Mr. Bacot drew my attention to 
some small tubercles situated between the large red dorsal tubercles 
on the 9th and 10th segments. These have been mentioned by Mr. 
Boulton, who, if I have heard rightly, was unable to determine 
their use. 
Anyone who has had the somewhat doubtful pleasure of rearing a large 
number of these larvae will probably have marvelled at their wonder¬ 
ful capacity for eating. They never seem to need the aid of the dainty 
little “ Beecham ” or “ Pepper’s Quinine and Iron Tonic ” to improve 
their appetites. The only jsreparation of iron that would be of any 
service would be the woodcutter’s axe, so that one could fell a few oaks 
and beeches, with whose leaves the perpetual cravings of the larvae 
could be ajspeased. When engaged in the, to them, pleasant business 
of getting outside the maximum of greenstuff in the minimum of time, 
the noise made by the jaws of some 200 larvas resembles the gentle 
pattering of a shower of rain, as it falls on the leaves of trees and 
bushes. I have heard it rejseatedly myself. 
I have noticed a peculiar trait in the character of these larvas, viz : 
their sensitiveness to certain sounds. When I have been talking while 
leaning over the aquarium-glass in which they were feeding, I have 
frequently seen them kick up their tails in a most irritated way, as 
if they were annoyed at the sound, which was probably intensified 
by the vibration of the glass. Similar results ma}' be produced with 
other larvas, as was mentioned in the Ent. Bee. for Sept. 1893, pages 
240-241, where Vanessa urticae, Bombyx quercus, Nemeophila plantaginis 
and CalUmorpha dominula are referred to as being affected in a similar 
way. 
The larvae of Ocneria dispar rest in a straight position on the stems 
and branches of their food-plant. If annoyed they fall from their 
resting-place, spasmodically jerking their heads and tails up and down. 
This is more particularly the case when they are young and frisky; as 
they become older and more staid they seem to take life more smoothly, 
and are not easily worried. These remarks apply equally to the larvas 
of Psilura monacha, to which species 0. dispar is very closely allied in 
every stage of its existence. 
Although the larvae are moderately hairy, I have not found that the 
hairs possess any “urticating” properties; but the short bristly ones on 
