1877 ] IGl 



highly polished intensely black head. Not knowing the proper food, I tried various 

 low plants, but they very soon showed a decided preference for Polygonum aviculare. 

 On this plant they fed greedily, and in a few days I put six or eight of them in a 

 warm room, with a yiew of accelerating their growth, and by this method this lot 

 were full-grown by the end of September. 



Lengtli wlien crawling quite an inch, but when at rest only about three-quarters 

 of an inch ; in this position too it is tolerably plump, but when crawling has an 

 attenuated appearance. Head a little wider than the second, but scarcely so wide 

 as the third segment ; it is highly polished, has the lobes rounded, and the jaws 

 prominent. Body attenuated a little towards the extremities ; it is cylindrical, but 

 the segmental divisions being deeply cut, and each segment plump and rounded, and 

 divided into two sections, give it a very uneven appearance. There is a polished 

 plate on the second segment ; skin semi-translucent and glossy, with a tough 

 appearance ; tubercles raised, and from each of them springs a short stiff hair. 



The ground colour is a warm olive-drab ; the head varies in different specimens 

 from reddish-brown to dark sienna-brown, and is more or less marbled with black, 

 the mandibles being black in all cases. The plate on the second segment takes the 

 same colouring as the segments which follow, in some instances, however, being a 

 little browner. Dorsal line dark olive-drab, and being bordered with pale drab is 

 very distinct ; outside it is a prettily arranged series, four on each segment (one on 

 each side every section of the segment), of large, round, black polished plate-like 

 marks, and each mark is enclosed in a circle of pale drab. These form the most 

 characteristic markings of the larva. There arc no noticeable sub-dorsal or spiracidar 

 lines, but there is a pale whitish waved stripe below the spiracles, which are black, 

 encircled with grey. Ventral surface uniformly semi-translucent dark olive-green. 



When young, and indeed, until just before its full growth is attained, the larva 

 is much more slender, and the head is then even larger than the third segment. 



These larvae were about the liveliest creatm-es I ever reared ; they wriggled 

 backwards and forwards in all attitudes, excelled in this respect by no Tortrix : they 

 reminded me more of young eels than anything else, in both their colour and actions 

 mimicking those creatures most wonderfully. They were, too, very pugnacious, as 

 two coming in contact immediately showed fight, and bit each other with theu' man- 

 dibles most unmercifully. 



They formed rather tougli, white, glossy, silken cocoons in the corners or on the 

 bottom of the cage, amongst leaves of the food-plant, and all changed to pupa; a day 

 or two after finishing their cocoons. The pupa is large for the size of the moth ; is 

 five-eighths of an inch long, glossy, and of the usual shape, except that the case con- 

 taining the head, eyes, and palpi is considerably narrower and smaller than the 

 thorax ; and there is a very peculiar and conspicuous tubercle on each side of the 

 front of the thorax. Colour, pale yellowisli-brown, the eye-cases, dor.sal stripe, and ab- 

 dominal divisions dark brown ; the hooked anal point, and the eye-like frontal 

 tubercles, alluded to above, nearly black. 



The imagos from these forced larvae appeared at the end of September ; and at 

 the same time the larva? of the remainder of the brood, which had been kept at a 

 natural temperature, were fast spinning up. At the beginning of October they had 

 all become pupae, in which state they will now no doubt remain over until spring. — 

 GrEO. T. PoERiTT, Uighroyd House, Huddersfield : November 3rd, 1877. 



