g [January, 



and there just traceable in glimpses of a yellowish-white colour. Bristles pale, but 

 very short and inconspicuous. Anal segment yellowish- or reddish-white, with a 

 small blackish-brown polished plate. Ventral surface clear yellowish-white under 

 the first four and the last segments, but tinged with red under the intermediate 

 ones. Legs polished, horny, blackish, ringed with yellowish-white, somewhat paler 

 internally. Frolegs semitransparent watery-white, with the usual dark rings near 

 the extremities. 



In its earlier stages the larva has the body clear shining amber- 

 yellow like the head ; it afterwards assumes a reddish tinge, which 

 gradually deepens and asserts itself more and more strongly as it 

 approaches maturity. In other respects the young much resembles 

 the full-fed larva, except that its black warts, though quite small, are 

 much more distinct. 



The egg is probably laid on the stem of the food-plant, Qlaux 

 maritima, in June or July, and if, as seems likely, it hatches that 

 same year, the larva presumably, since there is no evidence of a second 

 brood, hibernates while very young ; at any rate, it is still quite small 

 in the spring when it proceeds to feed up. It certainly enters the 

 central stem close above the surface of the ground, and then burrows 

 downwards, completely hollowing out the subterranean portion of the 

 stem, and neatly ejecting its deep crimson-red frass through the 

 entrance hole, beside which it forms a small heap. It lives entirely 

 inside the hollow tube thus formed, and upon reaching the very base 

 of the stem whence the separate rootlets spring, it penetrates into one 

 of these and continues its downward course, hollowing it out as far as 

 it can go, and living in the gallery: it then retraces its steps back to 

 the base of the stem, and entering another rootlet treats it in a similar 

 manner. I have sometimes found the larva as much as four inches or 

 so below the surface, generally of course head downwards, but occa- 

 sionally, when it is retracing its steps and has found room to turn 

 round, in the reverse position : when extracted from its burrow it is 

 fairly stout, and by no means so slender as one would expect from its 

 habits. If one plant is not sufilcient, it readily moves to another and 

 begins work upon it in the same manner ; at first some of the leaves 

 of the infected plant turn brown, and gradually the whole plant 

 sickens and begins to die away. In confinement a few larvae, when 

 apparently unable to find the special parts they prefer, enter the growing 

 stems of the shoots even comparatively high above the ground, eating 

 out their contents and living in the hollow tubes thus formed, the frass 

 being ejected through holes near the upper ends of the mines. When 

 full-fed the larva leaves its burrow to seek a suitable spot for pupa- 



