NOTES ON LIFK-HISTORTES, LARVAE, ETC. 157 



l^OTESON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARV^, &c. 



Note ox the larv.e oe ( 'akalhina (iiiAi.iui-UNriATA (cnucuLARis) . 

 IN THE Isle ok Man.-Oii the imh day of March, 18')8, 1 remved trom 

 Mr Thomas (^rcnuell, of No. 47, Athole Street, in the town ot Douglas a 

 l,ov containiu- many hundreds of the larvai of Cara<Inna>,nadnimnrtata 

 (rHbindaris) ,' mostly full fed, which were taken l.y Inm the previous day 

 from a warehouse situate ..n the North Quay, ni the town o Dou.i^las, 

 occupied by a Mr. Beck, tiour nierchant. The larv.. were all spun uj. 

 in n-ehs, and so peculiar an appearance did these u-ebs piesent, 

 that I accordin-ly sent a section of them to my triend, Mr J. U. 

 Tutt for his acceptance. In a communicatiou received l)y ^ me 

 from Mr. Tutt, dated the 1st inst., he stated, inWr alia, that, he 

 never saw anythin- like this collection of larva)," and rcfiuested me to 

 o-ive him some information bearino- thereon, for publication. I there- 

 fore wrote to Mr. Crennell <.n the :3rd inst., asking tor particulars, etc 

 and in a letter to me, dated the Kith inst., he writes that the ware- 

 house where the larvic were obtained is well ventilated and warm, 

 and contains many thousands of these larva) every year, in the 

 Summer and early autumn months, oreat quantities ot newly-mown 

 iiav froili various districts of the island are stored m such warehouses 

 for retail pm-poses, and multitudes of the young larva) become 

 ''housed." They feed on the new hay, clover heads, and other plants 

 that are among the hay, as he has seen them rq.witedly teastmg 

 thereon, and subsequently ascend to the crevices ot the beams and 

 ioists and sijiu up m a web or cocoon, composed chiefly ot seeds and 

 other'matter that lie on the l)eams, the walls of the warehouse being 

 sometimes practically covered with the webs. It is ot common occur 

 rence to find them (the webs) from 15 to 18 inches wide, and, on the 

 ■average, each of them contains upwards of 200 tull-fed lai-va) Mr 

 Crenuell goes on to say that it must be clearly understood that such 

 webs are a combination of cells, and each cell has one tenant only 

 that the caterpillars remain all the winter therem, and a .out May, tmu 

 to bright red chrysalides. The larvae of this species will also spin up 

 „n the sides of flour sacks in company with a little " meal worm and 

 sometimes even amongst the tiour itself the dust apparently not 

 .-•iviu-.- them any trouble about settling down. He has repeatedl> 

 seen The perfect insect, about Cln-istmas, on the wing f^^fV'?-uiH''"vr 

 have this year been flying about up to the present (April Uth) lie. 

 .luently the windows of the warehouse m (piestion are darkened by the 

 numbers ..f imagines settled on the glass. In September, last year Mr. 

 Crennell" forced" a great number of the full-fed lar vie by putting them 

 into a wooden box on a mantleshelf in a room where a fire was burn- 

 in- every day, and in eight weeks the perfect insects all emerged- He 

 savs • '^ There is no soil re.juired for the larvae to pupate m, only a dry 

 "box and a hot room is all that is wanted to force the species out Some 

 time a-o he gave his friend, ]\Ir. William (iarrett, ..t i^rimrose ( ottage, 

 Dou-la^s, about 200 of the larva) to force, and he j.ut them in o a cup- 

 board near a range, but they escaped, and in a tew weeks the 

 insects were all over the house."-!!. »"*'f ^^";'\*;,,^^-VS ^^Vqt^^ 

 Sulby Parsonage, Lezayre, Isle of Man. A^nl VMI. ^^^- ^^^ 

 imagines fr..m the larva) received by us trom Mr. Claike aic 

 now (:^Iay 2'Jth) emerging, rather dark, but otherwise (luite typical 

 (J, cHiicuUvis. — Ed.] 



