240 [September, 



become gradually lighter towards the anal plate, which resembles in colour the warts 

 in its neighbourhood. An inconspicuous brownish hair springs from a minute black 

 spot in the centre of each wart ; legs dark grejish-brown ; edges of spiracles in- 

 tensely black and solid-looking under a microscope, but hardly visible to the naked 

 eye ; booklets of claspers nearly black, claspers of the neighbouring ground colour. 



The shade of the ground colour varies a little in depth in different individuals, 

 but not much. 



I have the larva before me in three stages, viz., very small, about half-grown, 

 and full fed. There is very little difference in their appearance, except that the dark 

 parts of the younger larvn; (the head, warts, &c.) are darker, and have a more polished 

 appearance than in the full fed larva , and the space between the head and the plate 

 on 2nd segment is rather whitish, whereas in the full grown larva it is of the ground 

 colour. The younger larves are also less stumpy. The egg is doubtless laid in May 

 or June on the bud of the louse- wort, and the newly -hatched larva probably bores 

 at once into the seed capsule, as it is only there that I have found larva;. It appa- 

 rently moves from one capsule to another, as I occasionally find a capsule with the 

 seeds partly eaten, and with a hole bored in the outer covering not large enough for 

 the exit of a full grown larva. It is, however, possible that these holes are the work 

 of one of two other larvae which feed — the first (a Dipterous one) in the stems and 

 capsules, the second a very small (Coleopterous ?) one in the capsules only. If, as 

 Sowerby says of this plant, " no animal will eat it when other food is obtainable," 

 it seems, nevertheless, to be a favourite with insects, as there is also a third small 

 pink (Dipterous ?) larva, which eats the outside of the capsule. 



E. Oeyeriana, when nearly full fed, sometimes, at all events, feeds upon the 

 capsules from the outside, and cats the case as well as the seeds, as in one instance I 

 found that a larva had eaten about half the capsule itself and was still feeding on 

 the remainder. When touched, it sometimes omits a brownish liquid from its 

 mouth. It is sluggish in its movements, as might be expected from its shape. 



The larva leaves the plant to pupate, and spins a rather substantial cocoon of 

 white silk on or just below the surface of the earth. I bred an imago on the 9th of 

 August, and I hear that it was out at Bloxworth on the 1st. 



Mr. Cambridge discovered this moth near Bloxworth last year, 

 a,nd kindly showed me the locality, which enabled me to find the larva, 

 though for some time it seemed as if all the eating was the work of 

 the much more numerous non-Lepidopterous larvae before mentioned, 

 and as if E. Geyeriana was still to remain unknown. The plant is a 

 difficult one to keep in a healthy condition, as it soon gets mouldy, 

 and unless the larva is nearly full fed when found, I do not think 

 there would be much chance of rearing it. 



It will be seen, on referring to Ent. Mo. Mag., xvii, 3G, that the 

 above larva is very distinct from that of E. uclana. 



Monte Video, near Weymouth : 

 August 13th, 1891. 



