January, 1880.] 169 



dry old leaflets spun together, which I had cut from the Lotus and sent 

 to him, and within them he found enclosed, in a tough white silken 

 fusiform hibernaculum, a larva of caniella, alive, though accidentally- 

 killed during the investigation. 



During a gleam of sunshine on May 19th, I had great satisfaction 

 in seeing that the small family on the Lotus corniculatus had awaked 

 from their six months' sleep, as evidenced by five separate spinnings of 

 excessively fine glittering silk threads, one on an entirely new stem 

 with leaflets drawn over, hiding the little tenant in possession, the 

 others holding fresh leaflets to old dry stems, with minute specks of 

 fresh frass clinging to them. 



In the centre of the pot, old dead stems and leaves were numerous, 

 and amongst them silk threads began to accumulate, and extend to 

 many little new sprays of the plants, so that by the 22nd there were 

 two rather opaque webs thickly besprinkled with grains of frass ; just 

 dimly visible through a portion of the upper web, was a larva evidently 

 about to moult, it remained there motionless until the 27th, when it 

 was no longer in view, but re-appeared occasionally, perceptibly 

 grown ; another larva soon after became visible in the web lower down 

 amongst the same stems. 



By the Sth of June, the webs were easier to detect ; I then hap- 

 pened to notice a small one near the earth at the moment the larva in 

 residence came forth, to commence an extension for joining a fresh 

 spray to the despoiled one ; as it crept cautiously along the lower 

 horizontal part of the stem, it enabled me to see distinctly the details 

 of its naked form before many new threads intervened. 



From the middle of June, during five days I saw about as many 

 of the larvae similarly engaged, and afterwards taking up their varied 

 positions betw^een new leaflets, lying more or less one over the other, 

 often feeding on the lowest while covered by the uppermost; their v/ebs 

 continued to increase in size, density, and whiteness, and had so many 

 old stems and partly consumed leaves blotched with white incorporated 

 with them, as to be rather conspicuous ; soon, too, the threads from 

 one web began to encroach on another above, and they got in some 

 places quite joined together ; at this time the larvae were remarkably 

 shy and timid, for on the least disturbance of any part of the plant, 

 or even a breath passing over, they rapidly drew back into the recesses 

 of their abodes. 



I cut off one of these webs on the 1st of July, to figure the 

 occupant, and was not a little surprised to find three larvae inside, the 

 largest being three-eighths of an inch long, the next rather less, and 



