52 [August, 



IfATUEAL HISTORY OF I>IANTH(ECIA BARRETTI. 

 BY WILLIAM BUCKLEE. 



For the exposition of the habits of this rare species, which, so 

 far as at present known, seems confined to a part of the Irish coast, 

 I am greatly obliged to Mr. E. Gr. Meek, who kindly sent me nine 

 eggs, laid by a captured female, four of them on part of a flower 

 calyx of SiJene maritima, to which they adhered, and five loose. 



I received the eggs in July, 1878, when nothing seemed to be 

 known of the larval food-plant for certain, though I then heard from 

 a kind friend of great experience that Statice armeria might be a 

 likely plant to try, as well as that on which eggs had been laid, and 

 which was naturally also suggested by the insect's generic name of 

 Dianthoecia. 



Seven of the eggs were hatched in the evening of July 10th, 

 the other two next morning, and the little larvae were quite remarkable 

 for their activity and robustness as soon as they were out of the shells, 

 marching vigorously over small sprays of the two plants above- 

 mentioned provided for them. 



During the next day three of the larvae were eating out little 

 sinuous channels in leaves of the Silene, surrounding themselves with 

 frass, and by the third day had worked their way into the stems at the 

 axils of the leaves, where they had also thrown out little heaps of frass; 

 similar indications showed that one individual had entered a seed 

 capsule from within the flower calyx ; the others were still to be seen 

 roaming about at intervals until it occurred to me to try them with a 

 small piece of the root of the plant, as well also of that of the Statice, 

 when they all soon after disappeared. 



On the fourth day, w-hile inspecting the piece of root of S. mari- 

 tima, I detected two small holes in it with heaps of minute pale cream 

 coloured frass adhering to them ; and on the seventh day I examined 

 the axil of a stem and leaf where I found a larva had mined its way 

 downwards and was lying a quarter of an inch below in the stem, 

 waiting apparently for its first moult, but my stripping away half the 

 stem, to expose it, proved fatal, for it soon after died. 



About this time I began to realize the intentions of the infant 

 larvae, and could but lament the jeopardy my experiment had placed 

 them in, on finding the bits of plants were losing their freshness, and 

 the impossibility of rescuing the tiny creatures from their perilous 

 positions, for each attempt made proved fatal in a short time to those 

 in the stems ; soon, too, the bit of root began to turn mouldy, and a 



