212 [February, 



The eggs at first ai'e palo straw color, soon turning pale pnrplish-brown, and 

 again becoming clingy grey a long time before the larvae appear : this is singular, 

 for the last change of colour usually precedes the hatching of the larva but a few 

 hours or days at the outside. 



One half of my eggs I kept in a pillbox, the other half I dropped on a bit of 

 wallmoss, ToHuh. ruraMs, which was planted with some tufts of various common 

 grasses in a flower-pot ; here they were exposed to every change of weather — snow, 

 rain, or fi-ost — all through the winter ; till on April 4th, which was a warm day, I 

 put the flower pot under a sunny wall, and thus prevailed on the larvae to como 

 forth. The eggs in the pillbox shrivelled up, every one. The larva at first is a 

 little dingy fellow, but after a moult or two puts on the gayest dress worn in all its 

 existence, becoming of a clear full green, with white dorsal, sub-dorsal, and broader 

 spiracular lines. As it grows bigger, the green becomes tinged with olive, and at 

 the last moult the colour of the back is of an olive-brown, shining with a metallic 

 lustre (reminding one of bronzy morocco leather), and the lines, which are clearly 

 defined, are of a dirty freckled white. The figure is stoutest in the middle, tapering 

 towards either end ; the head horny, brown in colour ; the plates on segments two 

 and thirteen nearly black, the belly of a pale olive-green. When disturbed, these 

 larvae had a way of turning then* heads sideways back to their tails, and after 

 attaining some size, hid themselves by day among the grass. About the end of 

 June, they began to go undergi'ound, forming for themselves very neat and smooth 

 oval chambers, at about half-an-inch below the Burfaco, and inclined to it at various 

 angles, some of them being nearly perpendicular to it, so that the pupas in them 

 rested nearly upright. The pupa is reddish-brown, round and full in outline, the 

 blunt anal spike having two very small fine points projecting from it. 



The first moth appeared on August 14th, and the rest soon after. It was not 

 always easy to detect the newly-bred moths, as they hid themselves at the roots of 

 grass nearly as cleverly as the larvae had done, but one could always see the clean 

 round holes they had bored through the earth in emerging from their cocoons. All 

 sorts of common grasses were eaten by this brood, but a certain number of them 

 showed a decided preference for the rough hard Avra ccespitosa. — J. Hellins, 

 Octoler 11th. 



Worcestershire captv/res, and species bred in 1865 (a/rranged chronologically), vnth 

 notes. — March. — T. munda, 14 bred, two without the spots. A. prod/romaria, several 

 one good variety nearly black. In March, 18G4, I had 37 A. prodromaria out in 

 my box at the same time. I bred three very remai-kable varieties (rich brown and 

 white). My highly esteemed friend, the Eov, Edward Horton, was puzzled when 

 he saw them, and made several attempts before he named them correctly. C. 

 flavicomis, bred. C. 2^opuleti, several bred. 



April 4th and 7th. — L. lohulata, two bred from larvae I captured the previous 

 season. They are the only specimens I ever knew taken in tliis county. 



7th and 22nd. — C. temerata, bred from larvae kindly sent me by tb.o Rev. J. 

 Helhns. 



10th. — X. conspicillaris, one bred. It emerged a little after nine o'clock a.m. 

 1 huvo, excepting in this case, always found this species emerge a little before 



