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the migratory Aphides arc, I believe, very short, and arc only voluntary in very 

 calm weather. In such v^eather, large swarms of the sycamore Aphis hover about 

 the tree which it frequents, and the rising of the wind might sweep it away, and 

 accumulate its swarms at a distance from its native place. Last summer was 

 very favourable to the sycamore Aphis, and its swarms are reported to have been 

 as extraordinary as those of the Syrphi ; and if the former was the only food of the 

 latter, the unusual numbers of them have been of no benefit to the crops. — 

 F. Walker, The Avenue, Finchley, 1st October, 1864. 



Description of the larva of Leucania comma, with notes on its Itahits, ^c. — 

 Having for several seasons searched in vain during the spring for the larva of 

 Leucania comma, I this summer, towards the end of June, obtained eggs from a 

 female, which deposited them in a cluster, on a tuft of Dactylus glomerata, at the 

 axil of the sheath round a stem. Tn a fortnight they hatched, and for the first few 

 days the young larvae were exceedingly active and restless, crawling over the 

 grass, spinning threads, and suspending themselves from the tops of their food : 

 after their first moult, they settled well down to their food, and, excepting in very 

 bright sunshine, did not seem to shun the light. They had enormous appetites, 

 and devom-ed the greater part of three large tufts of the grass, eating always from 

 the top downwards ; they did not increase in size after the 10th of August, but 

 continued to feed nearly to the end of the month, when they retired an inch and 

 a half below the surface of the earth, close to the roots of the plant, and spun 

 silken cocoons with a slight covering of earth. On removing these on the 5th 

 September, one was broken (a proof of their fragile texture), and the larva was 

 coiled up within, aUve, and looking rather smaller and darker than before it 

 had spun. 



The larva) were striped longitudinally, and bore a very strong resemblance to 

 their congeners, impwra, pallens, lithargyrea, and pudorina. They were reddish- 

 brown, dull ochreous-brown, or dingy greyish-ochreous, varying but little ; a thin 

 thread of pale ochreous edged with dusky brown formed the dorsal line, on either 

 side of which was a space of dingy brown, followed by a line of dusky atoms, and 

 then a stripe of the ochreous ground colour. The sub-dorsal line brown, edged 

 externally with blackish at the anterior portion of each segment ; next to it, a 

 thread of pale ochreous edged with reddish-brown, then a broad stripe of ochreous 

 ground colour edged below with reddish-brown, and again with pale ochreous in 

 fine thread-like stripes; a broad brown lateral stripe followed, at the lower edge 

 of which were the black spiracles, with a broad pale ochreous stripe below them ; 

 the belly and legs ochreous-grey ; ordinary dots black when present, but not 

 visible in some specimens ; head brown, streaked and mottled with blackish. The 

 chief distinguishing character by which this larva can be known from those of 

 L. impwa and lithargyrea is the addition of the extra line between the dorsal and 

 sub-dorsal. — Wm. Buckler, Lumley House, Emsworth, September 12th. 



[We believe the above to be the first occasion on which any British Ento- 

 mologist has, with a full knowledge of its identity, reared the larva of this species. 



Mr. Hellins writes that, from two larva sent to him by Mr. Buckler, he has 

 succeeded in rearing the perfect insects ; they emerged on the 1st of October. 

 —Eds.] 



