26 The Developmental Characters of
from which I take the following extracts:—In the newly
hatched larva "the first two pairs of ventral legs are at first
not in use, and but little developed, and the larva often rests
in a looping position, and walks like a semi-looper." After
the first moult they still looped in walking, the less de-
veloped first two pairs of claspers not being used. The
Geometer-like habit appears to be abandoned in the fourth
stage, i. e., at the third moult. Mr. Buckler, who is perhaps
one of the most skilled and experienced larva breeders in
this country, adds further, that the larvae of Taeniocampa
opima are semi-loopers when young, and so also are those of
Phlogophora meticulosa.
The next observation is of great importance as showing
that a species which is a semi-looper when adult is more
perfectly geometriform when young. In a recently published
description of the caterpillar of Euclidia glyphica, Mr. G. T.
Porritt remarks that the newly emerged larva "when walking
arches its back like that of a Geometer." (Ent. Mo. Mag.,
vol. xvii., 1881, p. 210). When from an inch to an inch and
a quarter in length they had lost the true looper style of
walking, but were still half-loopers, having no claspers on
segments 7, 8, 11, and 12. The above-mentioned note by
Mr. Stainton has called forth some remarks in the current
number of the 'Entomologist's Monthly Magazine' (vol. xvii.,
p. 287), by Mr. R. F. Logan, who states that, according to
his experience, nearly all the larvae of the Trifidae are semi-
loopers when first hatched. "The Cymatophoridae are an
exception, but they are altogether abnormal, and somewhat
allied to the Tortricina, the eggs being pear-shaped, and the
larvae living between united leaves and moulting only four
times, while the normal number of moults in the Trifidae is
five."
Turning now from native to American observers, I was
fortunate enough to discover some corroborative evidence in
Mr. C. V. Riley's Reports 'On the noxious, beneficial, and
other Insects of the State of Missouri.' The following notes
are taken from this author:—
Agrotis inermis, Harris. Newly hatched larva) have "the