1S78.] 163 



Of three larvas I received on tlie 13th of July, 1877, two were quite small and 

 feeding slowly, while one was full-fed, and this, when safely extracted from the piece of 

 bark for the purpose of depicting, was soon afterwards induced to enter a goose-quill, 

 where it chose to remain and spin its cocoon, enabling me to watch its progress 

 through the transparent medium during a day and a half, when it became quite opaque. 



On the 22nd July, other pieces of ash bark, containing a pupa and a larva not 

 quite half-grown, arrived from the same kind friend, and this larva lived on as long 

 as I could keep the bark fresh and edible, but it died during the autumn, having 

 made scarcely any additional growth while in my keeping, although after the first 

 inspection I did not again disturb it, for at that time, after clearing away the frass 

 to ascertain the exact direction of the mine, I noticed that in a few minutes after- 

 wards the entrance was again blocked up with more frass by the larva within. 



In 1876, Dr. Wood found a full-fed larva at the end of May and bred the moth 

 on the 8th July following ; and in 1877, on the 19th July, he found a pupa and three 

 young lai'vae not half-gi'own. Of the two moths I bred myself, the first was a female 

 from the pupa within the befoi-e-mentioned quill on the 2nd of August, and, on the 

 15th, a male from the pupa within the bark. 



It appears that some of the larvae are feeding the whole summer through, but 

 whether they are more than one year in feeding up is at present a doubtful point, the 

 evidence being rather conflicting, although it justifies Dr. Wood's opinion that some 

 portion of a brood passes two seasons in the larval state. 



The larva when young is very pale, of a dirty whitish or greyish colour, having 

 a blackish-brown head and plate at each end of the body, and showing partially an 

 internal dorsal vessel of dark greyish ; but when full-grown it measures about three- 

 quarters of an inch in length and is tolerably stout in proportion, tapering a little 

 from the third segment to the head which is flattened and less than the second in 

 width, it tapers also a little from the eleventh to the anal tip ; beyond the thoracic 

 the other segments on the back have each one sub-dividing deepish wrinkle, followed 

 by one or two more or less distinct though they are deeper ou the sides, and the region 

 beneath the spiracles is puckered, the anal legs are close together and well beneath 

 the end of the body : the colour of the head is chestnut-brown marked with blackish- 

 brown, the plate on the second segment is much paler in front but broadly blotched 

 at its hind margin with the darker brown where it is dorsally divided, the anal plate 

 is chestnut-brown ; the ground colour of the back and sides is a deepish flesh tint, 

 gradually becoming paler and rather ochreous on the belly ; an interrupted dorsal 

 line of much darker flesh colour shows plainly on the front of each segment just as 

 far only as the transverse wrinkle, the tubercular dots and the brown hair emitted 

 by each are so minute as to be visible only through a lens, the characteristic ocellated 

 spot on each side of the third and twelfth segments is ringed with chestnut-brown, 

 having a flesh-coloured centre with a longish hair, the small round spiracles are of 

 the ground colour ringed with brown, the anterior legs chestnut-brown, these, and 

 the head, the plates, and ocellated spots, are highly lustrous, while all the rest of the 

 body appears soft and smooth, but without gloss. 



The pupa, while occupying the mine in the bark, is closely enveloped with a 

 coating of whitish silk as a cocoon so thin and clear that its form, and even a little 

 of its colour, can be rather plainly seen through the silk, the head lying very near 

 the entrance of the mine, which is lightly blocked with frass, of which a great quantity 



