Page:Life-histories of Indian insects - Microlepidoptera - T. Bainbrigge Fletcher.djvu/19

 T. BAINBRIGGE FLETCHER 3 yellowish colour, whereas the segments themselves have become of a darker greenish-yellow. " Second instar. About 2 mm. long and rather stout. Colour a greenish- yellow, paler below and on the sides on which the spiracles stand out darkly ; there are apparently small latero-dorsal tubercles which bear rather long white clubbed hairs. " If feeds on the glandular petioles, biting through the base and drawing the stalk into its mouth by a series of movements and finishing by devouring the drop of gum. It seems fairly voracious, but is evidently rather fastidious in its selection of the glandular hairs. " Third {? antepenultimate) instar. About 3 mm. long and fairly stout. Colour a pale green with interrupted pinkish latero-dorsal, lateral and supra- spiracular stripes. Tubercles green at base, brownish at points of emission of the white hairs " Fourth {ultimate) instar. A fully-fed larva on the point of pupation is just over 7 mm. long, moderately stout, stoutest about middle of body, tapering rather more rapidly towards the head. Colour pale green, a dark rather reddish narrow medio-dorsal stripe ; latero-dorsal tubercles red and surrounded with dark red dashes, which assume a rather longitudinal direction, so that the larva seems to have an interrupted rather broad latero-dorsal stripe. Head pale green with dark ocellar marks on either side. Jaws and mouth-parts reddish. Long palps on either side of jaws. " The larva?, however, vary much, but seem divisible into three types :— " (1) Pale green with a distinctly reddish tinge ; a narrow darker green dorsal stripe bordered on either side by a pale yellowish longitudinal line ; head pale green with dark reddish ocellar patches ; tubercles reddish-brown ; hairs white, as long as diameter of segmental interstices, slightly and regularly dilated towards apex ; prolegs pale green, alm.ost transparent. " (2) Paler green, on which the tubercles show up conspicuously as a bright dark red. " (3) Very much suflused with red, so as to appear of almost as red a colour as the Drosera itself. " The intensity of the dorsal stripe is very variable ; in some specimens it is very distinct, in others quite obsolete. " In its final instar the larva shows a decided preference for the buds and seeds of the Drosera, eating a hole in the side of the seed capsule and devouring the contents, but it also eats the leaves. " General remarJcs on the larval state. In all its stages the larva is extremely similar to the Drosera and difficult to distinguish. Even a full-grown larva