June, 1903] 1 j^o 



DESCRTPTIONS OF THE LARVA AND PUPA OF MOMPHA 

 CONTUUBATELLA, Hb. 



BY EUSTACE R. BANKES, M.A., T.E.S. 



The following description of the larva of Momphn {Laiiernd) 

 contiirhntelln was made on June iSth, 1901, from ajjocimens, about 

 full-fed, received on that day from my kind friend Mr. W. R. JefFroy, 

 who had collected them in the neighbourhood of Ashford, Kent. 



Larva. 



Jjenqth, when ftiirly extended, 9 mm. Greatest breadth, 1'8 mm. 



ITead brownish-black, of decidedly greater breadth than height, but conspicu- 

 ously narrower than, and partially retractile into, the prothoracic segment ; lobes 

 not prominently rounded ; antennfe very short, watery-whitish, ringed with black ; 

 ocelli black. Prothoracic segment rather narrower than those immediately suc- 

 ceeding it, and bearing a blackish-brown dorsal plate, of medium size, bisected by a 

 narrow pale central line. The thoracic and abdominal segments together form a 

 mass that is broad in the middle, and tapers gradually towards both extremities : in 

 colour it is crimsonish coral-red, shading into dirty pale ochreous on the thorax, 

 and with the well-defined intersegmental divisions showing, when visible, as pale 

 ochreous bars : skin hardly shining, smooth dorsally, wrinkled and pitted laterally. 

 There are no defined dorsal or subdorsal lines, but in the subdorsal and spiracular 

 regions there are irregular depressions, enclosing pale whitish-ochreous marks and 

 spots, which tend to form irregular, indefinite, much interrupted lines. In the male 

 larva the embryo testes show through the skin of the fifth abdominal segment as a 

 conspicuous dark dorsal blotch. The ■ipiraclefi and ttthercles only appear as very 

 minute and inconspicuous raised blackish dots, emitting pale bristles and hairs of 

 moderate length. Anal plate of medium size, blackish-brown. Ventral surface 

 dirty pale ochreous, tinged with reddish below the thorax. Legs highly polished, 

 externally blackish with pale bars, internally paler. Prolec/s semitransparent, 

 watery-whitish. 



Many larvaj in their last skins were compared together in 1901, and numbers 

 more in 1902, when further bountiful supplies were received, through the kindness 

 of Mr. Jeffrey, on May 13th and 27th, but none showed any noteworthy variation. 

 Owing to their habits, it is impossible to watch the larva? continuously through 

 their changes, but individuals in various earlier skins— the smallest, when moderately 

 extended, being barely 3 mm. in length, by -fiO mm. in greatest breadth— have been 

 carefully examined, and all agree with those described above, except in the colour 

 of the thorax and abdomen. This, which, in the smallest ones observed, is ochreous 

 rufous-cinnamon, appears to change, with the growth of the larva, first to rufous- 

 cinnamon, and then to dirty raw-umber in the penultimate skin. In the young 

 larva the alimentary canal shows thiKiugh the semitransparent skin, in places, as a 

 dark greenish dorsal line. 



The larva lives in a shoot of Epilobiiim angtistifolimn, 3i)inning the young 

 leaves tightly together with white silk, and feeding on the heart of the shoot. It 

 gradually works its way downwards, sometimes at hist boring for a short distance 

 into the stem itself, and leaves its frass, which is brown when quite fresh, but 



