1878.] 15 



Mr. Barrett has recorded m this Magazine (Vol. ix, p. 129) that Antithesia 

 ustulana had been bred by Lord Walsingham, fromlarvse found feeding in the stems 

 of Stachys palustris in the Cambridgeshire fens ; and Mr. Barrett informs us (Vol. 

 X, p. 146) that Ephippiphora nigricostana has been confounded with Antithesia 

 fuligana, from the fact that both feed in the same plant — Stachys sylvatica. Von 

 Heinemann 'pXa^es fuligana next to nigricostana, and says that they come very close 

 together. Postremana, which also feeds in the stems of Impatiens noli-me-tangere, 

 follows almost as the next species to fuligana in Von Heinemann's work. — H. T. S.] 



Economy of the larva of Ephippiphora nigricostana. — I first bred this insect 

 from larvffi found at Twickenham in the winter of 1863. I met with it again in 

 numbers in the neighbourhood of Doncaster in 1874 and 1875, and this winter hare 

 been successful in finding larvae round Cambridge, wherever the food-plant Stachys 

 syloatica occurs. 



The egg is evidently laid among the flowers, and the larva, on hatching, at once 

 eats its way down the flower-stalk, and so down into the main stem, packing the 

 space behind it very closely with its "frass." In October it may be found nearly 

 full-fed at different heights in the stem ; as winter approaches it descends, and in 

 December is generally just above the level of the ground, and here it is to be found 

 again in February ; in the interval, however, it seems to eat its way underground, by 

 mining the roots, or rather the horizontal suckers, which stretch from plant to plant; 

 for these may in spring be found as closely packed with "frass " as were previously the 

 higher parts of the stem. By April the larvae have climbed up into the top of the 

 plant, often through the old "frass " and into dried flower stems, scarcely as wide as 

 themselves, and here the pupae may be ionnAjust leloio a joint in the stem, fastened 

 by a few threads, but otherwise quite unprotected. 



The larva is of a pale lemon-yellow colour, with pale brown head; long and thin ; 

 attenuated towards the tail, and fond of wriggling backwards. If, by accident, a larva 

 has been ejected from a broken stem and a fresh untenanted one be presented to its 

 tail, it will slip into it as fast as an earth-worm into its hole. 



Sometimes in early spring, and in the autumn, before the flower-stalk has lost 

 its greenness, the larva itself bears a greenish tinge, owing to its having lately partaken 

 of the green food of the root or fresh stem. 



I think it is certain that the root is only used as winter pabulum, and perhaps 

 not always even then by all larvae, but only by those, which having found their way 

 into a small or crippled flower-stalk, do not get enough in its substance to feed up upon. 



In many cases the mined portion of the creeping root has a hole eaten out at the 

 side, and this usually happens where the flower-stalks, which when dry are very 

 brittle, have been broken ofl: ; it has occurred to me that the larva in this plight, 

 finding itself unable to descend to the root in the ordinary way down the stem, drops 

 to the ground from the broken piece and eats its way into the root, thus making 

 these holes. 



The pupa state does not appear to last more than two or three weeks, and (as I 

 have said above) the pupa may often be found in parts of the stem scarcely wider 

 than itself. 



The perfect insects, both J and ? , are to be seen sitting at sunset on calm 



