176 
NYMPHALIDAE 
both the Red-currant and the White-currant, also on Goose¬ 
berry and Elm. 
Egg. The egg measures o*8o mm. high and is an elongated 
spheroid in shape ; ten or eleven (mostly eleven) glassy-white 
longitudinal keels run from the crown to the base ; the spaces 
between the keels are very slightly ribbed transversely. The 
colour is a clear green, turning more opaque and rather 
yellower prior to hatching, and finally deepening to dark 
grey-green. The croton is black. The egg stage lasts about 
seventeen days. 
Larva. Upon hatching from the egg, the little larva makes 
its exit by eating away the crown of the egg, making a hole 
just big enough to admit its head. It then crawls very slowly 
out of the shell and immediately creeps to the under surface 
of the leaf, and thereon spins a slight web and commences 
feeding. After moulting four times and when forty-five days 
old, the larva becomes fully grown ; it then measures, on an 
average, 33 mm. in length. Along the body are seven longi¬ 
tudinal rows of spines from the fourth to the eleventh segments 
included. The ground colour is black reticulated with grey ; 
the anterior half of the body is transversely ringed with 
amber-yellow at the segmental divisions, and those on the 
posterior half are white dorsally and yellow laterally. The 
greater part of the second, third, fourth and fifth segments is 
yellow ; the sixth to tenth segments inclusive have almost 
the whole of the dorsal surface white. 
The larvae in a wild state are solitary, but in captivity live 
generally in small companies ; their habits are similar in all 
stages ; the usual resting attitude resembles the shape of a 
fish-hook. The larval state occupies forty-seven days. 
Pupa. The average length is 21-2 mm. The head is 
beaked ; the thorax swollen with a central keel. The waist 
is deeply sunken ; the abdomen is curved and the anal point 
(the cremaster) is flattened and elongated, measuring 2*12 mm. 
The ventral surface is almost straight. Along the abdomen 
is a series of very small dorsal ochreous-yellow points, and 
smaller black points on the side. The sub-dorsal points are 
larger, especially on the fourth segment ; those on the first, 
second and third segments are of brilliant metallic lustre, 
resembling highly-burnished silver, with opaline iridescence. 
