Some captured females laid single eggs sparsely on grass, wood,
and especially on the tarlatan with which the breeding-cage was
covered. The eggs are nearly spherical, but somewhat compressed, of a
grass-green colour, a little lighter, and somewhat larger (1.2 millim.)
than those of _Deilephila Euphorbiæ_. During the development of the
embryo the eggs first became yellowish-green, and finally yellowish.
_First Stage._
The young caterpillars are four millimeters in length, and immediately
after hatching are not green, but of a yellowish-white opalescent
colour, the large and somewhat curved caudal horn being black. The
caterpillars were so transparent that under a low magnifying power the
nervous, tracheal, and alimentary systems could be beautifully seen.
As soon as the larvæ began to feed (on _Epilobium parviflorum_) they
became green in consequence of the food appearing through the skin, but
the latter also gradually acquired a dark green colour (Pl. IV., Fig.
17). All the specimens (some twenty in number) were exactly alike, and
showed _no trace of marking_.
_Second Stage._
The first ecdysis occurred after 5-6 days, the length of the
caterpillars being from nine to ten millimeters. After this first moult
they appeared of a shining green, the horn, which was black during the
first stage, becoming a little red at the base, while a fine white
subdorsal line extended from the horn to the head (Fig. 18). The head
and legs were green; the divisions between the segments appeared as
fine light rings, and the entire upper surface of the segments was also
crossed by fine transverse rings, as was also the case in the first
stage.
At the beginning of the present stage no trace of the eye-spots could
be detected; but a few days after the first moult it was observed that
the white subdorsal line was no longer straight on the fourth and fifth
segments, but had become curved upwards into two small crescents. The
latter soon stood out more strongly, owing to the filling up of their
concavities with darker green. These are the first rudiments of the
eye-spots (Figs. 19 and 30). A very fine white line now connected the
spiracles (infra-spiracular line), and could be traced from the last
segment to the head. This line takes no further part in the subsequent
development of the markings, but disappears in the following stage. The
blood-red colour of the base of the black caudal horn is retained till
the fifth stage, and then also disappears.
Before the second moult, which occurs after another period of 5-6
days, the caterpillars, which were about 1.3 centimeters in length,
had assumed their characteristic tapering, slug-like form. I did not
notice that the larvæ at this stage possessed the power of withdrawing
the three foremost segments into the two succeeding ones, as is so
frequently to be observed in the adults; neither were these two
segments so strikingly enlarged as they are at an earlier period.
_Third Stage._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account