206 IKobnuny, 



Northumberland, a few miles nortli of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Second, they are not all 

 sooty-black, but vary in every degree, from the ordinary colour of the larva to 

 uniformly black, even more so than the specimen Mr. Porritt describes. I was rather 

 late in getting them last year, and most of them got into pupa before I could get 

 them sent off. I will endeavour to get a good supply this year, and will be happy 

 to supply any entomologist desiring either to preserve or rear them. I have bred a 

 great many of them, but never got a variety, and the dark specimens are so different 

 from the type, that it scarcely seems as if they came out right, when they produce 

 only the ordinary form of the imago. I do not wonder that Mr. Porritt had no 

 idea what the larvse were. — John E. Robson, Bellerby Terrace, West Ilartlepool : 

 January, 1879. 



Xatural Kistory of Ci-amhus genicideus. — On September 4th, 1877, my friend, 

 Mr. Wm. R. Jeffrey, kindly sent me a female moth of this species alive in a pill-box, 

 wherein she had laid a few eggs loose, and continued to lay a few more until the 9th, 

 when she died. 



The eggs began to hatch on the 28tli of the month, one or two at a time, until 

 the end of October, and, as the young larva; hatched, they were in succession placed 

 on a potted turf of short grass cut from a dry pasture, and I had no further trouble 

 with them througli the winter beyond occasionally watering the grass, which continued 

 to look very well up to the commencement of March, 1878, when it began to look 

 sickly and to die off : meanwhile a fresh turf was potted jvist in time to receive the 

 remaining larvae, for many had already left their winter quarters in quest of fresh 

 pasture, and I picked up a few while making their escape from the withered turf ; 

 amongst which, however, quite enough still remained, crawling actively amongst tlie 

 threads spun in connection with their silken galleries, now for the most part aban- 

 doned ; these galleries were close to the earth, and some few partly beneath the 

 surface, crowded with frass at the bottom and made of dirty-brown silk, they were 

 not conspicuous. 



By April 13th, the fresh turf had become greatly ravaged and the larvse were 

 rapidly maturing, two at this early period having already spun iip ; and a further 

 examination at the end of the month proved them to be full-fed and all spun up, 

 after converting their galleries into cocoons, wherein they remained (while the grass 

 flourished) for the three following months. The moths appeared at intervals, two 

 or three at a time, from the 2nd to 25tli of August. 



The egg of geniculeus is roundish-ovate in shape, the shell rather strongly ribbed 

 and reticulated, and slightly glistening; its colour, when first laid, is yellowish-white, 

 but changes in a few days to salmon colour, afterwards to pinkish-red, and a few 

 hours before hatching again changes to a dark pinkish-grey. 



The newly-hatched larva is of a rose-pink colour, with a blackish head and a 

 brown plate on the second segment ; and when about the age of five months it is 

 half an inch long, of a very dingy reddish-brown or greyish-brown colour, with 

 blackish head, black plates and spots, altogether darker than it afterwards becomes. 



The full grown larva measures five-eighths of an inch in length and is moderately 

 stout in proportion, cylindrical, though tapering a little at the hind segments, the 

 head, full and rounded, is a trifle less than the second segment, which is rather long, 

 each segment after the fourth has a deepish wrinkle across the back. The colour of 



