OQ [June, 



Althougli thus instructed, it was, however, in vain that I hunted for the larva 

 in 1877, through the end of May, onward to 11th of June, the day on which I 

 chanced to find under a stone, within a neat little cavity of another stone beneath, 

 embedded in stiff soil, a fine pupa, which, on the 12th of July following, produced 

 a remarkably handsome female specimen of ahjecta. 



Having so far proved this species to exist on the south coast, I felt encouraged 

 to resume the search in 1878 in the same locality, where, during the months of May 

 and June, I found larvae of other species, from time to time, yet not one to satisfy 

 me until the 3rd of June, but on that day I felt hopeful of having found ahjecta in 

 a young larva adhering to the under-side of a stone, where it had sheltered itself 

 with a partial covering of green frass, spun together with silk, having been also 

 connected with the tuft of grass whereon the stone htid lain. 



By assiduously following up this success on all available opportunities, extending 

 the area of research, and raising a large number of stones, much to the discomfiture 

 of colonies of ants, various beetles, spiders, crustaceans and slugs, I was again re- 

 warded by finding on the 20th of June a full grown example of the larva, under 

 what proved to be a very lucky stone ; though on turning it over, at first there 

 seemed only a large black spider in view, wliich sprang forward in alarm to a small 

 hole, and as it paused there a moment on the brink, a small spot of pale colour 

 beneath its dark body arrested my attention, and this pale spot proved to be part of 

 the back of the larva, which was soon safely extracted from its snug quarters between 

 the matted grass. 



After figuring and describing this larva, it was placed in a pot furnished with 

 some of its native salt muddy soil, together with a small tuft of the grass and a 

 stone, and it soon worked its way beneath ; I subsequently found it had formed for 

 itself a very slight loose cocoon of silk with a few particles of soil adhering, not 

 under the stone, but close under the grass at side of the pot, and the moth, a fine 

 dark greenish-glossed female, emerged on July 29th. 



The young larva of the 3rd of June lived only a week, and was no more than 

 barely three-quarters of an inch long, of stoutish figure ; its head, plates, and small 

 horny spots of shining red-brown colour, the real ground colour of the body being 

 a rather shining flesh colour, palest and coolest on the thoracic segments, though not 

 much of this showed on the back and sides, just merely a little around each spot, 

 and in the transverse wrinkles when they opened with the movement of crawling ; 

 the intermediate pai'ts clouded purplish-brown without gloss, the paler coloured skin 

 more conspicuous between between the head and plate on the next segment. 



The full-grown larva measured one and five-eighths of an inch in length, and 

 was stoutly proportioned, cylindrical, the segments plump, moderately well-defined 

 and puckered on the sides with short wrinkles, the spiracular region forming a puffed 

 ridge along the eleventh and twelfth ; the ventral and anal legs short, thick and well 

 beneath the body as in the true Agrotides, adapted more for burrowing than walking, 

 though in all other respects of structure besides, its true affinity lay with Xylophasia, 

 very apparent in the transverse horny ridges and spots on the thoracic segments, 

 though all the spots were much smaller than with poJyodon, yet similar in shape and 

 arrangement : the body was of a rather dirty pale fiesh tint, having a faintly darker 

 flesh-coloured dorsal vessel appearing through the skin, the head, the anterior and 

 anal plates, and the anterior legs of glossy bright reddish-brown colour, the horny 



