Habits  of  larva. — Stainton  repeats  Ochsenheimer's  observa-
tion,  that,  "at  Leipzig,  the  larvae  and  cocoons  are  brought  in  hundreds
almost  every  year,  for  sale,  to  the  market,  by  the  country  people  who
gather  bilberries."  Freer  writes  (En/.,  xvi.,  p. 260)  that  he  found  three
larvae  in  1879  and  two  in  1883  on  Cannock  Chase,  that  they  were
difficult  to  find,  reposing  in  the  daytime  on  twigs  of  heather,  pre-
ferring dead  or  old  twigs ;  he  suspects  that  they  feed  at  night,  as  he
never  found  any  feeding  or  even  resting  on  their  foodplant,  Vacctn-
turn  myrtillus. Hering  states  that,  in  Stettin,  he  found  the  full-grown
larvae  resting  low  down  on  aspen. De  Geer  writes  (Mem.,  i.,  pp. 229
et  seq.) :  *The  larvae  are  heavy  and  slow,  walking  little,  the  body
supple  and  flaccid  as  are  those  of  the  Mackey'  larvae. Sometimes
the  larva  takes  up  a  very  remarkable  attitude,  rolling  itself  into  a
circle  with  the  legs  and  venter  outside,  occasionally  the  larva  only
raises  the  anterior  part  of  the  body,  and  folds  it  back,  resting  often
more  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour  in  this  position,  at  other  times  it  will
bend  the  front  of  the  body  back  so  that  the  head  touches  the  8th  or
9th  segment,  and,  as  the  larva  at  the  same  time  maintains  its  hold  by  its
prolegs,  it  appears  as  if  the  body  were  bent  in  two."

Larva. — ^Adult  (from  blown  example). Length  i  •6ins.,  diameter
at  widest  segment  (5th  abdominal)  'isins. Superficially  the  larva
reminds  one  of  a  dull  or  rather  brownish  larva  of  Cosmotriche
potatoria. Head :    Rounded,    only    slight  '  tendency   to    square   or


castropacha  ilicifolia. 191

trapezoidal  outline;  colour,  dull  bluish-grey,  dead  velvety-looking
suiface,  with  thickly-scattered,  rather  fine,  black  and  pale  brown
hairs  covering  it ;  clypeal  triangle  orange  and  black ;  mouth-parts
pale  red-brown  and  black ;  antenna  (rather  shrunken)  with  the
base  pale  brown ;  ocelli  large,  black,  five  in  semicircle  (  ?  another
near  base  of  antenna). Body  :  The  thoracic  rather  smaller  than
the  abdominal  segments,  of  which  the  4th  and  5th  are  largest ;
subdivisions  of  segments  distinct,  the  abdominal  segments  sub-
divided into  5  subsegments. 