NOtttS ON LIFE- HISTORIES, LARV/E, EtC. 185 



in both particulars, 2, 8, 4, 5 and 6 eggs being found on some leaves, 

 whilst sometimes they are placed well away from the midrib. — J. W. 



TUTT. 



Pupation of Apamea ophiogramma. — Mr. Thornhill was good 

 enough to send me four larvse of this species to determine for him. 

 Having no convenience here to keep species of this description, I cut 

 the stalks of grass he sent with them into pieces, about two inches 

 long, and kept them in a tin box. They fed up in the stalks, and 

 threw out the frass very freely, and made no difficulty about pupating 

 in the stems after the fashion of a Noncujria. The stalks began to get 

 a little dry, so I placed a piece of wetted blotting paper in the tin 

 with them. A very fine specimen emerged on the 15th, another on 

 the 16th, a third on the 17th, and the last on the morning of .June 18th. 

 — Ibid. 



Second BROOD ofTephhosia bistortata (cricpuscularia, Dup.). — From 

 eggs sent by Mr. Mason, which hatched during the last week of 

 April, I bred, during the week of June 16th-28rd, several specimens 

 of the second brood, all, as usual, rather small, and of the 

 peculiar dead-white ground colour, characteristic of the summer-bred 

 specimens = ab. consonaria, Haw. These are particularly well-marked 

 with grey. On .June 23rd two larva? of the same brood were still feed- 

 ing. These later-feeding larvse were only about half-an-inch long 

 when the earliest went down. Imagines were found at large on 

 trunks in Chattenden Woods, July 4th. — Ibid. 



Plusiamoneta at Ascot, Hastings, Folkestone, and Waltham Cross, 



WITH some observations ON ITS PUPA AND THE COLOUR OF ITS COCOON. 1 



managed to get Flusia ninmia again this year at Ascot. The larvas 

 were full-fed a fortnight earlier than last year. I got others from 

 near Hastings and Folkestone, and a neighbour of mine caught one 

 on the wing here the first week in July. The pupa is rather curious, 

 the leg-cases prolonged until nearly as long as the abdomen, and, just 

 before the moth emerges, the hind pair of legs and the proboscis can 

 be very plainly seen in their cases, but not nearly filling them [vide, 

 Ent. Hecord, vol. iv., p. 195). The wing-pattern and colour show 

 through very clearly, and even the specks on the ventral surface of 

 the abdomen, in fact, che whole pupa-case, is transparent, except the 

 dorsal surface, which is opaque and black. The cocoon, if spun 

 indoors, remains white, if out of doors, bright yellow. I tried to get 

 ova from these four difterent localities ; four were laid on the under- 

 side of a leaf of monkshood, but have proved infertile. — E. Augustus 

 Bowles, M.A., F.E.S., Myddelton Hall, Waltham Cross. Sept., 1896. 

 The colour of the cocoon of Plusia moneta, with a description 

 OF the larval habits. — The colour of the cocoon of P. vmncta appears 

 to depend upon the amount of light to which the caterpillar is exposed 

 at the time of spinning. The silk varies very considerably, some- 

 times it is lemon colour, at others, rich safi'ron yellow. When the 

 larvte first hatch, they are miners, several sometimes inhabiting one 

 mine. After hybernation, they feed in the flowering shoots, partly 

 arresting the growth by nibbling nearly through the shoot, and then 

 attach several leaves together, after the fashion of a Tortricid larva. 

 When half-an-inch in length, they are olive green, with four black 

 dots on each segment, thus, . * ' . , and two others are placed laterally. 

 The larvcie, at this time, are partly clothed with longish hairs. 



