NOTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LAEViE, ETC. 235 



:i^OTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Habits of Lepidopterous Larv.e. — Is it not a fact that almost all 

 larvfe wander in nature when ahont to pupate, cji., we have all ob- 

 served the Sphini/idae racing round the breeding-cage, and many other 

 species have the same habit. The object seems to be to give time for 

 the extrusion of such food-contents as may be in the intestine, and for 

 the silk-spinning organs to become perfected. Of course, some species 

 which do not fall from the boughs, but get to the ground down the 

 stems, do not require the extra excursion others take, and Centra 

 would appear to be, as a rule, a stay-at-home on the tree. — S. Webb, 

 Dover. Deccmhcr dth, 1895. 



Habits of the larva of Coccyx cosmophorana. — At a recent meeting 

 of the South London Entomological Society, a discussion on the habits 

 and distribution of Cdcci/.c cosnioplKinaia took place. In the course of the 

 discussion Mr. McArthur, well known as a shrewd observer and inde- 

 fatigable collector, stated that he had taken the species very rarely 

 in Eannoch, but had bred a long series from larvae obtained at Forres. 

 He stated that the larva was apparently symbiotic with Eetinia 

 resinana, feeding in the galleries which the latter larva bores in the 

 resinous excretory masses Avhich form around it during the time that 

 it is feeding. These galleries in the resinous nodules are lined with 

 silk, and the frass of the larva is entangled therein. Mr. McArthur 

 asserted that the larva of Cocci/. r co.wmpJwrana fed upon " the frass 

 of Eetinia re-nncoia," and that from a bag full of nodules, collected at 

 Forres and containing larv?e thus feeding, he bred a long series of 

 C. cosinophomna a short time ago, during the time that he was staying 

 in the Shetland Isles. This strange habit of the larva invited further 

 observation and more detailed description, so I appealed to Mr. J. 

 Hartley Durrant. He very kindly sent me, in the original German, the 

 account of its life-history and habits, as given by Eatzeburg (1840), 

 Kaltenbach in 1874, and Hartmann in 1879. There can be no doubt 

 that Mr. McArthur's observation is somewhat at fault, and that the 

 supposed habit, from which it would appear that C. cosinophorana is an 

 inquiline of the excrescence of Betiuia resinana, is probably erroneous. 

 The fact is that (\ cosmophorana itself makes an excrescence similar 

 to, but smaller than that of R. resinana, and that what Mr. McArthur 

 considered were the excrescences of the latter, were simply the natural 

 domiciles of the former. Kaltenbach knew the species from the egg, 

 and describes the female as "laying her eggs in the tiny fissures in 

 the bark of Pimts silrestris and F. picea. The young larva then 

 bores through the tender bark into the young shoots, when resin oozes 

 out, and is built up into resin galls. These increase in size Avith the 

 groAvth of the larva, nevertheless they are always smaller than those 

 made by the larva of Tor/ra- resj'najja " (Pflanzeii-Flinde Ins., 697). 

 Hartmann adds that the larva lives from " September to April," gives 

 Finns ahies as a food-plant, and states that it lives in "resinous 

 excretions, which are smaller than those of B. resinana " {Mitth. 

 Munch. Ent. Ver., iii., 189). I would here acknowledge Mr. Cur- 

 rant's kindness and courtesy. As I was at this time writing to 

 Mr. A. Home, of Aberdeen, I pointed out to him the improbability 

 of C. c(isi}uiphi)rana larvte feeding in the manner described by Mr. 

 McArthur, and told him at the same time of Kaltenbach's observa- 



