1897.] 5 



LIFE-HISTORY OF ARISTOTBLIA TETEAaONT:LLA, Stn. 

 BY EUSTACE E. BANKES, M.A., EE.S. 



Seeking comfort from the well-worn adage, " Better late than 

 never," I will now proceed to put on record an interesting discovery 

 made between three and four years ago. On May 4th, 1893, 1 started 

 off on a long expedition to the saltmarsh in this district, where 

 Aristotelia tetragonella had been taken by the Eev. C. E. Digby and 

 myself in the previous year, as recorded in Ent. Mo. Mag., ser. 2, vol. 

 iv, p. 46 (where in line 18 of my note I accidentally wrote "hind 

 margin" for "dorsal margin"), intent on making a thorough search 

 for the then unknown larva of this very local species which has never 

 yet been found outside England. After reaching and carefully sur- 

 veying the spot, I soon noticed some small plants of Qlaux maritima 

 looking brown and sickly, and at once felt pretty sure that the wished- 

 for prize was within my reach. Such proved to be the case, for in 

 due time from the larvae then secured about two dozen imagines were 

 bred from June 17th to July 4th. I also reared the moth in 1894, 

 though only three specimens of it which emerged July 13th to 30th 

 from larvae collected on May 19th, and again this year when a nice 

 series appeared, June 19th to July 10th, from larvae brought home on 



May 12th. 



LARVA. 



The following description of the full-fed larva was mainly drawn 

 •up on May 6th, 1893, and slightly amplified on May 21st, 1894, and 

 May 13th, 1896. I follow such well-known writers as Messrs. Buckler 

 and Stainton, and Drs. Chapman and Wood in counting the head as 

 the first segment of the larva. 



Length, 7'5— 8 mm. Greatest breadth, 1-1 — 1-2 mm. 



Read polished, clear amber-yellow, much narrower than the prothoracic seg- 

 ment ; upper mouth-parts dark, but here and there showing orange-red ; ocelli 

 distinct, black, polished. Prothoracic segment yellowish-white, with a polished dark 

 brown dorsal plate, nearly straight on its anterior and semicircular on its posterior 

 margin, and divided across the centre into two equal parts by a yellowish-white line. 

 Body, which only narrows abruptly from the broad mesothoracic segment to the 

 head, but tapers gradually towards the anal extremity, is, with the exception above 

 mentioned, of a beautiful crimsonish coral-red : skin smooth and shining. The 

 interstices between the first four segments showing broadly and conspicuously 

 whitish as the larva crawls. On the anterior part of the sixth segment there is 

 above each side a conspicuous white spot, and in some individuals an oval dark internal 

 blotch, presumably representing embryo testes, shows distinctly through the back of 

 the ninth segment. Warts extremely small and inconspicuous, black and polished, 

 resembling black pin-points. There are no noticeable lines, though they are here 



