1913.] 31 



Tlie third ecdysis took place on July 12tli, so that the third instar 

 lasted about six days. An important alteration in the appearance is 

 now seen ; the wing-pads appear, and the pronotum is strongly 

 margined and carinated in the middle, so that it assumes something of 

 the shape which is characteristic of the adult BeryUdie. The wing- 

 pads are short, covering only two abdominal segments, and the frontal 

 process is strong, but still blunt. The white central line is marked 

 with a greenish spot at the passage from each segment to the next. 

 During this instar the insect reached the length of 5 mm. 



The fourth ecdysis took place, to my surprise, on July IStli, only 

 three days after the preceding one. The insect after this moult was 

 h\ mm. long and more ochreous in colour. In this instar the wing- 

 pads are longer, lanceolate, and covering nearly three abdominal 

 segments. The central keel of the pronotum is continued right 

 through the scutellum, and forwards along the head into the frontal 

 process, which is now entirely white. The white colour is continued 

 round it in front on to the tmder side, as a distinct margin, and the 

 enclosed area is brownish green. 



The young bug was now in its fifth, and probably last, larval 

 instar, and I had every hope of rearing it to maturity. But for some 

 reason or other I failed to do this, and it died on July 25th, having 

 been ten days in its last instar. Two others reached the same stage 

 and then, after a still longer delay in this instar, unfoi-timately 

 succumbed, one on September 3rd and the other on September 7th. 

 These last two had entered their last instar on Augiist 1st and 

 August lOtli respectively. As I was spending August in Snowdonia, 

 I had to take these two with me, and possibly the abnormally cold and 

 cheerless weather we had during that month, accompanied as it was 

 by incessant rain, may have proved too much for their constitution, 

 and their little lives came to aif end after they had lived with me 

 between nine and ten weeks. The only other reason I can think of for 

 the failure of these insects to complete their metamorphosis, is that a 

 change of diet in the last instar may pei'haps be necessary for that 

 purpose, and possibly even the substitution of an animal for a 

 vegetable one. 



Throughout their life I kept them well supplied with ordinary 

 lawn grass, and they often liked to get down to the dry and brown 

 parts of it near the roots, where they would remain for a long time 

 immovable. They were frequently seen to plunge the rostrum into 

 the green parts of the grass, and sometimes they kept it inserted for 



