16 [June. 



evenings in May and June on the upper surface of the Stachys leaves, and, with care, 

 may be pill-boxed ; but they are apt to drop or, on the slightest disturbance, to skip 

 from leaf to leaf, and are easily lost either on the ground or among the grass. The 

 males also fly briskly just before sunset along the hedge rows, where the Stachys grows. 

 I cannot help thinking that this insect will be found to be generally distributed 

 all over the island. — W. Waeeen, 51, Bridge Street, Cambridge : April IQth, 1878. 



ElacMsta stabilella bred. — In February last I found a number of yellowish 

 Elachista larvae, mining the leaves of a common grass on the chalk soil at Newmarket, 

 which produced in April El. stabilella. 



This larva very nearly resembles that of El. Oregsoni, but is more yellowish : 

 while the head and the 2nd segment are pale brownish -. in fact, exactly like the de- 

 scription of El. niyrella : — the plate on the 2nd segment is of precisely the same shape 

 as that of Gregsoni. I found in some cases as many as three or four larvae together 

 ill the brown withered tips of the blades, from which they mine downwards in narrow 

 pale yellow mines to the stem : the larva pupates at the base of the blade under an 

 oval shaped web, just as Gregsoni : and the perfect insect seems to emerge over a 

 lengthened period, as my first specimens came out in the middle of April, and many 

 have not yet emerged : while I found very young larvae still feeding on the 1st of 

 May. Probably, the larvae found in the dried tips of the blades had hibernated : but 

 this point, together with the name of the grass itself, I must leave for further 

 examination. — Id. : May Sth, 1878. 



Stinging Lepidopterous larva. — With reference to the notes on luminous and 

 stinging larvae of Lepidoptera contained in the last Vol. of this Magazine, it may 

 not be uninteresting to republish the following statement from Proc. Ent. Soc. (1841), 

 p. 23 : — " Mr. Yarrell exhibited a large and hairy caterpillar, evidently one of the 

 " Lepidoptera, picked up in South America by Capt. Blakeney, E.N., who felt, upon 

 " touching it, a sensation extending up his arm similar to an electric shock, of such 

 " force that he lost the use of the arm for a time, and his medical attendant con- 

 " sidered that his life was for some time in danger." — W. F. Kirby, Dublin : April, 

 1878. 



Description of the larva of Pyrameis Iluntera. — Mr. Blackburn has sent 

 eight specimens of Pyrameis Iluntera, and a full description of the larva, which 

 he found in the island of Maui, or Mowee. This makes only the fourth species 

 of butterfly he has seen. He does not appear to have met with cardui, which, 

 in the " G-enera of Diurnal Lepidoptera," p. 205, is given as found in the Sandwich 

 Islands. Possibly Iluntera has been mistaken for it. 



Description of the larva : — Head black, with white pubescence. Sjjiracular line 

 greenish-yellow. Ground colour of each segment greenish-yellow, more or less mot- 

 tled and transversely striped with black (both dorsally and on under-side). Each 

 segment bears (especially about and below spiracular line) long whitish hairs. The 

 third and fourth segments (counting the head as first segment) have each the following 

 in addition, viz., a broad, velvety, black dorsal band, passing from spiracular line to 

 spiracular line, and bearing four long black spines, each spine being itself covered 



