190 [January, 



its being very far commoner in marshy meadows and marshy or boggy 

 heaths, where there was not a teazle plant within miles. I thought I had 

 the required clue when I received a note from M. Eagonot to this effect : 

 " some time since I was quite surprised to see appear out of some 

 " heads of Scahiosa succisa a Pentliina marginana {ohlonganii). \ had 

 " expected to hY^edifractifasciana.'''' Will it be wondered at that I 

 spent long hours and much valuable patience, in a meadow where tnar- 

 ginana had been common, in examining the far too abundant flower 

 and seed heads of the common devil's bit scabious ? 



On September 10th, 1S78, 1 received from Dr. Wood, of Ledbury, 

 a larva feeding in a seed-spike of Stachys hetoniccu, with an enquiry as 

 to its probable species ! This was an instant revelation — the Stachys 

 was most abundant in the marshy meadows where marginana occurred, 

 and on September 16th I found the larva in its flower or seed-spikea 

 in plenty. 



It is nearly cylindrical, but with the segments plump and much 

 wrinkled, colour pale amber, spots very minute, blackish with short 

 white hairs, head and dorsal plate large and strong, deep black, anal 

 plate round, dark brown. Inhabiting a silken gallery along the central 

 stalk of a seed-spike of Stacliys hetonica, eating out the seeds and 

 sometimes hiding in an empty calyx. 



It remains in an active state in this habitation in the seed-spike 

 all the winter (sometimes even until May or June), but ultimately 

 spins its cocoon in one of the terminal calyces, in which it becomes a 

 light brown pupa, which protrudes from the calyx when the moth 

 emerges. In this late spring the first appeared on May 25th (but it 

 is commonly observed a week or fortnight earlier), and they continued 

 to emerge slowly through June, and very sparingly in July, while one 

 or two appeared as late as August 20th, from which it seems clear 

 that there is but one brood in the season, and that I, and doubtless 

 others, have been in error in supposing that the late summer specimens 

 were the oifspring of those that appeared in May. I think that 

 Stachys hetonica will prove to be the ordinary food-plant of this species 

 in this country, and I see that Hofmann records it as feeding in seed- 

 vessels of Galeojjsis and Euphrasia odontites in mountain districts. 



Antithesia faligana, Hiib. (ustulana, Haw., carbon ana, Dbl.). The 

 only continental record of the larva of this species which I can find 

 seems to be an error. Miihlig says : " in autumn, in dry stems of 

 " Impatiens noli-me-tangere, bred with postremnna.''' I suspect that 

 Miihlig's specimens were all postremana. 



