120 
NYMPHALIDAE 
under observation some years ago started depositing at 
1.20 p.m. and continued until about 5.30 p.m. ; during the 
whole time she clung to a leaf with closed wings and laid a 
heaped-up batch of eggs, four or five deep in the centre and 
two or three deep elsewhere, in all the eggs numbered about 
500 or more. 
Egg. In height the egg of the Marsh Fritillary measures 
o*8o mm., it is ovate in form, and will be seen to be broadest 
just below the middle ; it has about twenty irregular ribs 
running from the crown downwards to nearly half the length, 
where they branch off in wavy curves. 
When first laid the colour of the egg is a clear lemon- 
yellow. Gradually, however, it becomes deeper in colour, 
being an ochreous-yellow on the fourth day, and finally the 
shell changes to a brownish-drab colour previous to hatching. 
The egg stage usually lasts twenty days when the temperature 
is normal. 
Larva. As soon as the larvae are hatched, they at once 
start spinning a web over the food plant, and under this they 
live together in a dense mass. After a few days feeding on 
the cuticle of the leaf, they leave the web in a body to spin 
themselves a fresh abode and cover that part of the host 
plant with web, upon which they rapidly crawl. 
At the end of August, or early in September, the larvae 
enter into hibernation ; that is, after the third moult. Pre¬ 
paratory to hibernation, they spin a dense and compact web 
amongst the leaves of the food plant, in which they all 
congregate in a mass. In the wall of the nest are one 
or more exit holes, through which a few emerge together 
at one time daily, about noon. They remain outside the 
nest for two or three hours at a spell and again retreat into 
the privacy of their nest. This the larvae do for about a 
week or ten days before finally settling down for the winter. 
In the spring, when the weather is sufficiently warm, 
sometimes as early as the end of February, perhaps, some 
emerge from hibernation and rest outside the nest for a 
short time, but they always retreat into their hibernaculum 
at sundown. 
When fully grown after the fifth moult and nearly 300 days 
old, the larva measures from 25 mm. to 30 mm. long. The 
