THE SPECKLED WOOD 
43 
weather is sufficiently mild. Owing to the frequency of some 
of the larvae feeding up and pupating in late autumn, these 
winter pupae produce the early spring butterflies. 
Egg and Egg Laying. The eggs are laid singly on blades 
of grasses, among which are the Annual Meadow Grass (Poa 
annua), the Rough Cock’s-foot Grass (Dactylis glomerata) and 
Couch Grass (Triticum repens). The egg is 0*80 mm. high, 
spheroid in shape and of a translucent greenish-yellow colour. 
The whole surface is finely reticulated, with a fine honeycomb 
pattern over the crown and base, and the middle is delicately 
keeled. Owing to the larva being the same colour, the 
colouring remains unchanged, excepting just before emergence, 
when the dark head of the larva shows clearly through the 
transparent shell. The egg stage lasts nine or ten days. 
Larva. Directly after emerging 
from the egg, the little larva eats 
the empty egg-shell, leaving only 
the base. When fully grown after 
the third moult, it measures from 
25 mm. to 28 mm. long. It is 
slender and tapering at each end ; 
the head is prominent and slightly 
notched on the crown. The ground 
,1^,-.,. • 1 0 me ^pecKiea vvoou 
colour is a clear grass-green, with (Male ab. Sep. 1903, Dawiish). 
a darker dull green medio-dorsal 
stripe bordered on each side by a light greenish-yellow line, 
and a fainter and narrower sub-dorsal line, followed by two 
more still fainter and slightly wavy lines ; the whole of the 
ventral surface is a clear translucent green. The entire sur¬ 
face is granulated and sparsely sprinkled with minute whitish 
warts, each bearing a greyish hair. The anal segment termin¬ 
ates in two diverging whitish joints covered with greyish hairs. 
The larval state varies greatly according to the time 
of appearance of the broods. The larvae producing the 
summer brood pass about 30 days in that state, while those 
which hibernate and produce the spring brood are from six 
to eight months as larvae. 
During the last few days the larva feeds almost continu¬ 
ously. When suspended for pupation it assumes the form 
of a distinct loop. 
