1905.3 79 



localities. Single examples have already been recorded from near 

 Southend and llochester, and I hear that it has also been taken in 

 Suffolk. 



The eggs of this species, in a state of nature, are probably de- 

 posited at the axils of the sheaths round the stems of various marine 

 grasses, but which I cannot say, for, up to the present time, I have 

 not been able to discover the larva in its wild state. In confinement 

 in chip boxes, where flakes of the chip have been raised with the point 

 of a penknife, the eggs are thrust well beneath the pieces so raised, 

 and generally in groups close together, and, sometimes, when there is 

 sufiicient room, they are piled one on top of each other. In a very 

 few instances one or two eggs have been laid between the top edge of 

 the box and the lid. The principal object of the parent moth appears 

 to be to lay them where they will be well out of sight and hidden 

 from the light. But they were very shy of laying in confinement, 

 the batches were not numerically large, and several females died 

 withou laying at all. 



"When first laid the eggs are round and smooth, of a pale straw 

 colour, and covered with a glistening glutinous substance, but in the 

 course of a few days many of them assumed a shrivelled up appear- 

 ance, and when this occurred to the first batch I had I thought they 

 were infertile, though they afterwards changed colour and produced 

 larvae. About the third day after the eggs were deposited they 

 changed to a deeper straw colour, and a day or two before they 

 hatched became of a pale leaden hue, which gradually darkened as 

 the time for emergence arrived. 



The period passed in the egg state appears to be nine or ten days. 

 I did not note the date of emergence of each batch of ova. My 

 observations and descriptions of the larva9 in their earliest stages were 

 principally taken from one lot of eggs that were deposited by a 

 typical female on July 2nd, and which hatched on July llth. (Other 

 lots hatched July 15th, 18th, and 24th, and of the second brood on 

 September 15th, 16th, 23rd, 24th, and 27th.) 



"When first hatched the little larvae were of a dull smoke colour, 

 with shining dark brown heads, but in about twenty-four hours, after 

 they had eaten a little, they became paler, their anterior segments 

 were tinged with olive-green, and their heads were of a reddish-brown 

 colour. The dorsal plate on the second segment was well defined. 

 At this stage their anterior segments were somewhat swollen, and the 

 posterior attenuated. "When disturbed they fell suspended by a 

 silken thread. For the first three or four days of their existence 



11 2 



