18!'6] 249 



green in colour, with black head and second segment, I took little care 

 of them, but was surpi"i?ed to breed a pair of peliella ; Mr. Bird, who 

 also took some larvae, bred six or eight. Mr. Stainton, on being in- 

 formed of the fact, suggested that probably the larva he described had 

 changed its livery before pupation. This year, however, both Mr. 

 Bird and Mr. Bower, as well as myself, have bred the species pretty 

 freely from the same larvae, none of which turned black before pupa- 

 tion. The only conclusion, therefore, to be arrived at is that, though 

 undoubtedly the real larva of peliella must have been in the plants of 

 Rumex brought back by Mr. Stainton from Germany, yet another 

 species with a black larva was also there, and this larva Mr. Stainton 

 described as 'peliella, overlooking the real " Simon Pure." He then 

 proceeds to describe the green larva in detail, to which Stainton ap- 

 pended the following remarks, Ent. Mo. Mag., XXY, 162 (1888) :— 

 " I find that my friend Herr Anton Schmid, who was with me when 

 we found the larva of Gl. peliella, near Soden, in May, 1859, describes 

 it as ' dunJcelrotlihraun,' Berlin Ent. Zeit., 1863, p. 62, and the fact 

 remains that, whereas I tlid breed peliella, I did not breed the ' other 

 species with a black larva.' I have frequently on other occasions bred 

 Sericoris lacunana from larvae sent me, as those of some other species, 

 so that I am not altogether unfamiliar with that kind of proceeding." 

 What is the cause of this diversity of opinion, in each case 

 founded on personal observation ? It should be borne in mind that 

 both Stainton and Schmid who is regarded as the discoverer of the 

 larva of peliella agree in describing it as dark red-brown. Stainton 

 might have made a mistake in describing a larva given to him in error ; 

 but Schmid knew the larva of peliella when he pointed it out to 

 Stainton, and subsequently described it as being dark red-brown, and 

 if confirmation of their observations were necessary, it is supplied by 

 Lord Walsingham, who met with the brown larva in Corsica, and 

 from them bred a series, not of Warren's hypothetical species, but of 

 the real " Simon Pure " (vide ante, p. 247). Can it be that we have 

 two very closely allied species, the one with a green larva, the other 

 with a chocolate one, which have not yet been differentiated in the 

 imago ? If this be not the case, it is very curious that there should 

 have been a coincidence of error on the part of Stainton, of Schmid, 

 and of Lord Walsingham. Further observation is required to settle 

 this point, and it is possible that peliella, Tr., does not occur in this 

 country, but is represented here by a closely allied species. 



Merton Hall, Thetford : 



September, 1896. 



