1891.] 301 



NOTES ON EUrCECILIA SODALIANA, HAW. {AMANDANA, H.-S.), 

 WITH DESCRIPTION OF THE LARVA. 



BY W. a. SHELDOK. 



This species is not uucoinmou in a locality a few miles from Croy- 

 don, and I have taken it in some numbers for several years. 



The imago appears in June and July, the earliest date in my diary 

 is the 15th of June, and the latest the 8th of July, it is usually well 

 out by the 20th of June, and quite passe by the end of the month ; 

 during the day it is exceedingly sluggish, appearing to hide amongst 

 the thickest growth, and if disturbed dropping like a stone ; early in 

 the evening a few specimens may be found sitting upon the leaves of 

 the food-plant, common buckthorn {Bhamnus catharticus) , or on the 

 grass stems under the bushes. 



Flight usually commences about half-past eight, and is over by 

 nine o'clock, during this time a fair series may usually be taken on a 

 warm and still night by standing under a buckthorn bush and netting 

 the specimens as they fly over it, their white colour rendering them 

 easily discernible ; after nine o'clock hardly one will be seen. 



The ova are deposited on the berries, apparently singly, the larva 

 hatches in about fourteen days, burrows into the berry, and feeds 

 upon the contents ; when these are devoured, another berry is selected, 

 and the process goes on until the larva is full-fed, which is usually by 

 the end of August. 



The infected berries turn purple much earlier than the sound 

 ones. The larva has a habit of fastening together with silk those 

 berries in its immediate neighbourhood. In confinement it burrows 

 freely into virgin cork, forming therein a tough leathery cocoon, in 

 which it passes the winter, unchanged ; probably in nature the bark of 

 its food-plant furnishes it with a hibernaculum. 



The following is a description of the full-fed larva, made with 

 the assistance of a glass : — 



Lengtli, I inch, moderately stout, sluggish, head highly glabrous, amber 

 coloured, mouth darker ; on the second segment is a jet-black shining plate, divided 

 in centre ; dorsal area purple ; between the segments light pea-green ; dorsal canal 

 not apparent, except when larva is crawling ; anal segment has an indistinct green 

 plate spotted with black ; on each segment are several humps, each one of which 

 emits an indistinct hair. Ventral area light pea-green. 



15, Alexandra Road, Croydon : 



September Uth, 1891. 



