1879.] 53 



fresh piece was placed beside it, and on the eleventh day I had the satis- 

 faction to see a heap of frass thrown out of it — a proof of one still 

 alive and within the fresh piece. 



In the meantime I had satisfied myself that neither flowers, leaves, 

 nor root of S. armeria had been attacked, and therefore had potted two 

 plants of Silene maritima, having good roots and close together in the 

 pot, and there, between those roots jvist beneath the surface of earth, 

 I wedged in tightly the bit of root, containing the sole surviving larva, 

 on July 23rd. 



On September 13th, I turned out the contents of the pot, by in- 

 verting it, to search for the larva, but no search was needful, for the 

 soil had been more sandy at the bottom of the pot than elsewhere, and 

 now formed the top of a cone, and this slipping away the larva at once 

 rolled into view ; it had evidently done feeding, and a great quantity 

 of pale frass, quite fresh, filled up a large cavity in the shoulder of the 

 thickest root ; if it made any chamber or gallery the falling away of 

 the light earth had quite destroyed it. 



When the larva was placed in a small pot with some of the earth 

 it did not burrow underneath, but, after much wandering about, even- 

 tually settled down under a fragment of root, and there changed to a 

 pupa on September 17th ; the moth, a male, emerged on the evening 

 of June 27th, 1879. 



The egg in shape is round, somewhat flattened, and with a slight 

 depression beneath, the surface very finely ribbed and reticulated; the 

 colour very pale greenish-buff, and on July 6th, when first in my pos- 

 session, showed a faintly darker speck at the top, and by the 9th of 

 the month the embryo was seen through the shell as a dark spot on 

 one side, and this next day was increased in size and in depth, of a 

 leaden hue, while the rest of the shell was tinged with brownish-grey, 

 when the hatching soon began. 



The young larva at first is of a very pale rather greenish-drab 

 colour, with blackish head and narrow blackish plate on the second 

 segment. After the first moult, when the larva has fairly become an 

 internal feeder, its head is shining reddish-brown, and the narrow 

 shining plate on the second segment is of similar colour but a little 

 paler, the rest of the body tinged with livid reddish-grey, the skin 

 rather shining and semi-transparent, through which a dark internal 

 vessel is visible, the anterior legs reddish-brown. 



The full-fed larva measures about one inch and a quarter in length, 

 stoutest at the third and fourth segments, the second tapering a little 

 to the smaller and rather narrow head, with lobes deeply defined at 



