J ^2 [November, 



commonly on July ]5tli, and tlicy continued to feed until the end of 

 July, producing the second brood of moths in August, but so terribly 

 were they infested with ichneumons that, although I brought home two 

 large bundles of plants and planted them in flower-pots, only six spe- 

 cimens emerged. This accounts for the scarcity of the moth along 

 this coast. 



The larva is short and thick, thickest towards the head and rather 

 attenuated behind, somewhat wrinkled and excessively sluggish — not 

 to say stupid, — dull pale yellow, faintly tinged with reddish on the 

 back, spiracles brown, head light brown, plates faintly brownish, the 

 dorsal plate having a brown bar across its posterior margin. Abdominal 

 legs very small and inconspicuous. 



Feeding within the growing stems of Senecio jacohcea, eating the 

 pith and stopping the growth of the central shoot so that it becomes 

 thickened and covered with a bunch of leaves, while the side-shoots 

 grow up past it. From appearances, the larva must commence to feed 

 in the heart of the shoot and eat down into the pith of the stem where 

 it forms a chamber, in which it assumes the pupa state in a cocoon of 

 white silk. The pupa is of a light chestnut colour, and is extruded 

 from the burrow when the moth emerges. This habit of assuming the 

 pupa state in the feeding ^^^('^^ is very unusual in this group. 



I have not yet met with the second brood of larvse from which the 

 early summer brood of moths is produced. 



Dr. Hofmann qv;otes from Gartner to the effect that the larva of 

 atricapitana feeds " in October in the root-stocks of Hieraciuon ttmhel- 

 " latum either on the surface of the root, covered with a web, or in a 

 " silken tube within, several larvae not unfrequently being together." 



But I think this must refer to some other species. Certainly the 

 insect shows no partiality for Hleracium umbellatum in this country, 

 but is always found among ragwort. 



Eupcecilia angustana, Steph. — I hear fi'om Mr. Jeffrey that he once 

 reared this species from pink larva^ found in the seed-heads of Plantago 

 lanceolata, on the cliffs of Scarborough, in the first week in September. 

 This partly agrees with Gartner's account (under the name of cruen- 

 tana), — " ]S"ot unlike the larva of diiUtana, the anterior margin of the 

 " dorsal plate not whitish, but like the head, dark brown, and the ele- 

 " vated dots on the back not so conspicuous. In August, among the 

 " seeds of Plantago media, in an ascending web. Pupa short, dark 

 "brown, shining." {Diihitana, he describes, "brownish -yellow, naked, 

 " with isolated short hairs. Head heart-shaped, flat, rust-yellow ; 

 " dorsal plate bistre-brown, lighter in front, edged and divided with 



