56 
SATYRIDAE 
freely deposits its eggs even when confined in boxes, with all 
air and light excluded, and will readily lay when exposed to 
artificial light. 
Egg. In proportion to the size of the butterfly, the egg is 
of large dimensions, being 1*3 mm. high, of an ovate globular 
shape. It has about twenty-five longitudinal keels, which are 
triangular and finely ribbed transversely. When first laid it 
is pale primrose-yellow, gradually deepening, when two days 
old, to straw-yellow, with a slightly darker crown, and in¬ 
distinctly spotted over the whole surface, these spots on the 
fifth day being clearly defined, and dark purple on the seventh 
day. On the tenth day the ground colour is lilac-grey and 
the spots become fainter, and disappear finally, and the 
markings of the larva show clearly through the shell. The 
egg stage lasts about sixteen days, according to temperature. 
Larva. The larva makes its exit by eating round the crown 
of the egg, then pushes up the lid and crawls out, often feeding 
on a large portion of the empty shell. 
When fully grown after the third moult, about 290 days old, 
it is 22 mm. in length and of rather stout proportions, being 
thickest in the middle and tapering -at each end ; the anal 
segment terminates in a pair of points ; the ventral surface 
is flattened and there is a dilated lateral ridge. The head is 
pale ochreous-buff, granular and studded with bristles. The 
body segments are encircled with white warts, bearing slightly 
curved, serrated spines with the apical half brown and cleft tips. 
The normal ground colour is a very pale ochreous-yellow, with 
a medio-dorsal stripe of dark olive-brown, broadest and darkest 
as it approaches the anal end, and bordered on each side by a 
very pale ochreous stripe. The sides are checkered with lilac- 
brown, and there is a checkered line of the same colour and a 
broad pale band. Then follows a pale greenish-olive band, 
mottled and scrolled with olive-brown, bordered below by a 
pale line. Next follows a spiracular band with faint mottlings, 
and this is again bordered by a lateral stripe ; the legs and 
claspers are ochreous-olive. 
During their last stage, the larvae shun daylight by hiding 
at the base of the grass as low down as possible, where they 
remain all day ; at sunset they crawl up the stems to feed 
during the night. 
