138 
NYMPHALIDAE 
it is pearl-grey, with the dark head of the larva showing 
through the shell. The egg stage lasts from five to ten days, 
according to the temperature; the normal time is about 
seven days. 
Larva. Upon hatching, the little larva eats away just 
sufficient of the crown of the egg to allow of its exit, but 
does not feed on the empty shell after emergence. It then 
measures only i - 6mm. long, and at once crawls to the base 
of the young Nettle leaf, on the upper side, and starts spinning 
a web which gradually draws the two edges together at the 
base, forming a pocket wherein the larva lives and feeds in 
security. It lives throughout its stages in the same manner, 
i.e. in a folded-up leaf with the edges spun together, and it 
rests laterally coiled up in the form of a figure 6. 
After the fourth moult, and when fully grown, the larva 
measures 35 mm. long. It is stout in proportion and tapering 
to the head ; the first segment is disproportionately small. 
There are seven longitudinal rows of branched spines, each 
terminating in a finely-pointed spinelet. On the anal segment 
is a blunt, conical wart, paler than the ground colour. The 
head is bronze-black, beset with numerous shining black and 
yellowish points, each bearing a fine bristle. The surface 
of the body is granulated and sprinkled with tiny white 
warts, each emitting a fine white hair. 
The colouring varies greatly in different specimens. The 
darkest form has all the spines glistening black and the ground 
colour velvety-black, excepting around the spines, which is deep 
red-brown, and save for a lateral series of lemon-yellow lunules. 
The legs are glossy black, the claspers brown and the feet buff. 
Other dark forms have buff and yellow-coloured spines, and 
the body more or less speckled with white, and the anal wart 
pinkish. Others are checkered with lemon-yellow, producing 
a greenish-grey ground colour. The larval stage lasts about 
twenty-three days. 
Pupa. The pupa measures from 22 mm. to 23’8 mm. long. 
The head is blunt. The thorax rises to a point, forming an acute 
angle ; it is sunken at the waist. The abdomen curves to the 
anal segment, which terminates in a long cremastral process. 
The ventral surface runs in almost a straight line, except for 
a slight concavity at the apex of the wings and abdomen. 
