372 
HESPERIIDAE 
tender blade of grass, which it soon starts feeding upon, 
eating little notches out of the edge. It then spins two or 
three strands of silk from edge to edge of the blade, drawing 
them partly together, and daily spins more and more strands 
until nine or ten are spun at almost an equal distance apart, 
which brings the edges of the blade closer together. 1 In this 
tubular shelter it lives and feeds off the edge of the blade a 
short distance above its abode. 
When fully grown, after the fourth moult, the larva averages 
about 24 mm. in length. The head is rather oblong; the 
surface is granular and sprinkled with minute white hairs. 
The clypeus is outlined with white, and there is a white streak 
over two-thirds of each lobe of the crown. The body is 
attenuated at each end; the first segment is very small and 
the last segment terminates in a round, projecting anal flap. 
The ground colour varies from a pale yellowish-green to 
glaucous-green. A darker bluish-green dorsal band runs the 
entire length of the body and is intersected by a very fine 
central yellow line, and bordered on either side by a yellowish- 
white stripe ; below is a sub-dorsal finer line of yellowish- 
white, followed by a wide, conspicuous, whitish-yellow lateral 
stripe. The whole surface is studded with extremely minute 
white bristles. On the ventral surface between segments 
nine and ten and ten and eleven are patches of white waxy 
substance similar to that on other allied larvae of the 
Hesperiidae. Like these, the larva of A. adeem is provided 
with an anal comb for the ejectment of its excrements. This 
consists of twenty or twenty-two tines, otherwise it is similar 
to that of the Large Skipper. The larva attains full growth 
early in July, the larval stage lasting between ten and eleven 
months. The larva is solitary. 
Pupa. The pupa of A. acieon averages 17mm. in length. 
It is very similar to that of A. sylvestris, but has a much 
longer head horn, about.twice the length of that of sylvestris ; 
also the thorax of adeon is less curved, otherwise the two 
species are similar. When the colour is fully mature, the 
head and wings are pale green, the thorax bright green and 
the abdomen light yellow-green. The pupa is attached to 
a layer of silk spun along the surface of the grass blades by 
a cincture round the waist and the cremastral hooks. 
