162 [December, 



The pupa is barely three-eighths of an inch in length, of moderate substance, 

 the wing-covers long, the thorax keeled, also the three upper abdominal segments, 

 and on them the spiracles are tumid eminences, as they are also on the penultimate, 

 the last segment ending in a taper, downward curving, flattened point, slightly bifid) 

 and furnished -with six excessively fine curly-topped bristles; the colour is a light 

 warm mahogany-brown, the tips of the wing-covers and abdomen darker brown, the 

 surface generally glistening. — William Bucklee, Emsworth : November 10th, 1879. 



Description of the larva of Crambus hortuellus. — Early in March last I found, 

 at roots of grass and moss in one of my fields, a few larvae of a Crambus I was un- 

 certain about, but which, at the end of June, produced hortuellus. 



Length about half an inch, and of average build in proportion ; the head has 

 the lobes rounded, and is very highly polished, as is also the horny front of the second 

 segment. Body rounded above, but flattened ventrally ; it is of tolerably equal 

 width, but tapers very slightly posteriorly ; skin glossy, with a semi-translucent ap- 

 pearance, the segmental divisions well defined ; the raised tubercles polished, large, 

 and i^rominent, and from each of them is emitted a short but moderately stiff hair. 



Grround colour dingy purjjlish- brown ; head pale yellowish-brown in some spe- 

 cimens, in others very dark sienna-brown ; frontal plate also of different shades of 

 brown in different specimens ; and the tubercles in some are of a darker shade of the 

 ground coloui', in others quite black ; spiracles black. There are no other noticeable 

 markings. 



Along with these larvse was one with an olive-green ground colour : it I kept 

 sej)arate, but as it seemed a slightly moi'e robust looking creature, and I failed to 

 rear a moth from it, I cannot be certain that it was a variety of the same species : 

 culmellus and pratellus occur on the same ground, so it is possible for it to have be- 

 longed to either of them. — Geo. T. Poeeitt, Uighroyd House, Huddersfield : Ibth 

 October, 1879. 



On the habits of the larva of Fhycis subornatella. — The larva of Phycis subor- 

 natella is noticed by Professor Zeller in the Isis, 1846, p. 768 (translated in the Ent. 

 Ann., 1867, p. 144), thus : — " It lives in silken tubes upon the ground amongst the 

 "plants of thyme, and is pale with some dark longitudinal stripes." Further than 

 this, I think it has not been noticed or described, and when, in 1877, I met with 

 one or two specimens of the moth on the coast here, the re-discovery of this larva 

 became a special object of anxiety and search, and considering that the moth is 

 scarce here, and that thyme is most emphatically not so, it will readily be supposed 

 that the re-discovery was no easy matter. However, in the beginning of June, 

 1878, I visited a spot about thirteen miles from here, on which one specimen of the 

 moth had occurred, and there on the rocks found large spreading masses of thyme, 

 under which were populous colonies of yellow ants. Here, after careful scrutiny, 

 I found some loose patches of fine silken threads, such as might conceal the retreat 

 of a spider, but connected beneath with a thicker dirty-white loose pouch or passage 

 of silk, in which, if traced far enough, was a dull dark larva. This was a great 

 discovery. My little girl set to work to help me, and we succeeded in extracting 

 about half-a-dozen of these larvse, part of which were immediately sent off to Mr. 

 Buckler for figuring, but from some defect in our mode of treatment, neither of us 

 succeeded in rearing a moth, although Mr. Buckler was tantalized with an 

 ichneumon. 



