1880.] 191 



As already recorded {ante vol. ix, p. 129), Lord Walsingtam 

 reared a very beautiful and variable series of Antithesia fuUgana 

 some years ago from larvae found feeding in stems of Stachys palustris 

 in the Cambridgeshire Fens, and early in October, 187S, his lordship 

 paid a visit to the same Fens for the purpose of looking for this 

 larva, and to his kindness I am indebted for the opportunity of de- 

 scribing it. 



It is exceedingly long and slender, with segments deeply divided 

 and much wrinkled, colour delicate pale green, with the internal dorsal 

 vessel distinctly visible, of a reddish-bi'own, and forming within the 

 eighth segment a double bar, head bright chestnut, dorsal and anal 

 plates greenish. In stems of Sfachi/s palustris, eating out the pith, 

 and leaving the space partly occupied with excrement, but not so much 

 so as to prevent it from moving rapidly up and down the burrow. 

 From examination of the dead and dry plants, I think that it does not 

 enter the roots, as they seem to contain no frass. It remains in the 

 larva state in a stem until the spring, when it spins a silken cocoon 

 just beneath one of the joints of a stem (not always the stem in which 

 it has fed), and then changes to a bright brown pupa, which pushes 

 through a small hole in the joint when the moth emerges. My speci- 

 mens emerged, very slowly, between June 15th and July 8th. 



Sericoris eiipliorhiana, Ti. I am much indebted to Mr. W. Purdey, 

 of Folkestone, for his kindness in sending me larvae of this species in 

 1877 and 1878, of which larvse I have drawn up a description. Cylin- 

 drical, active, colour dark green, slightly paler beneath, spots of the 

 same green colour, with short bi'istles, head very pale brown, dorsal 

 and anal plates black, auterior legs black. In shoots of Euphorbia 

 paralias, drawing together the terminal leaves into a bundle, eating 

 the heart completely out, burrowing down into the stem of the shoot, 

 and also forming a chamber, much lined with frass, among the young 

 leaves. Full fed at the end of July, when it leaves the shoot and 

 spins a delicate flat white cocoon of papery-looking silk between two 

 dead leaves of the spurge, in which it becomes a light brown pupa. 

 Some of the moths emerge from the middle to the end of August, the 

 rest (the majority generally) remain in pupa during the winter, and 

 emerge in the following June, but I strongly suspect that the June 

 brood is reinforced by the descendants of the moths which emerge in 

 August, since there is no reason to believe that the moths hibernate. 

 There must in this case be larvae feeding in September or October, but 

 I have not received any at this ])eriod. Mr. Purdey says that the 



