1880.] 209 



Description of the larva, Sfc., of Scapula prunalis. — During October, 1876, 

 Mr. Wm. E.. Jeffrey drew my attention to some very juvenile larvse such as lie had 

 before found at that time of year on Qaleobdolon, Laniium, and a few other 

 plants, but I was unable to name the larvae then, or to find any description giving a 

 clue to their identity or to rear them, hence as an enigma to be solved, their identi- 

 fication stood over to the following season. 



For this purpose in 1877 my good friend, again in October, found and kindly 

 sent me five examples of these little larvae, when I was prepared with a potted plant 

 of Galeohdolon luteum for a better attempt to rear them to maturity, and this, greatly 

 to my satisfaction, I was just able to do, and breed the moth on June 18th, 1878. 



In October the larva varies in length from three to four or five sixteenths of an 

 inch, is slightly fusiform with a very pale translucent faintly greenish body, the head 

 black, a small black mark on each side of the collar or second segment ; it is found 

 in a silken spinning under the turned-down edge of a leaf. 



The larvae were placed openly on the plant and left to take care of themselves ; 

 they moulted during November and then showed very faint whitish subdorsal stripes, 

 and, apparently without feeding, soon spun up in white silken hibernacula securely 

 attached beneath the edges of the leaves. 



As January, 1878, proved comparatively mild, and the plant was kept sheltered 

 in a window, I was not at all surprised to see one or two of the larvae occasionally 

 on the under-side of the leaves nibbling little channels out of the lower cuticle, 

 causing a change of colour on the i;pper surface and betraying their situations ; but 

 as much colder weather set in during March not one could be observed for many 

 days until near the end of the month, when I detected one feeding, and soon after 

 found another laid up in a slight web between two leaves waiting to moult, though 

 it failed in the operation eventually and died ; whUe the other, the only one left on 

 the plant, soon left its shelter under a large leaf after eating a couple of holes 

 through the substance, and took possession of the under-side of a smaller and fresher 

 leaf; it was now from a quarter to three-eighths of an inch long, the head black as in 

 autumn, the body paler ; here it began to draw down part of one side of the leaf 

 with a few threads and occasionally feed on the opposite side, eating a hole quite 

 through : after two or three days it began to eat away a narrow open channel through 

 one side of the leaf near the stalk, for the purpose of turning the part under from 

 the cut to make a covered-in abode, and as this progressed the larva went at intervals 

 to feed on the opposite half of the leaf, which became pierced with many holes by 

 March 24th ; and ae no fresh holes appeared then for a day or two, I turned up the 

 leaf to see what had occurred, and found a part of it had been rolled completely 

 round the larva, which lay hidden within, but on tearing back a small portion the 

 larva could just be discerned in a web, lying with its head coiled round waiting to 

 moult, and getting over this operation on the 30th, it deserted the leaf and wandered 

 about over several others before again settling down to feed. 



After this moult the skin was much more translucent and the head only partly 

 black on the lobes of the crown and on the cheek behind level with the ocelli, the 

 characteristic black mark on each side of the second segment now very distinct, rather 

 like that oi ferrugalis, yet with the round dot heldnd not separated hid forming part 

 of it, somewhat after the fashion of a dumpy ninepin with projecting knob at the end. 



The last moult occurred on the 25th of April, when these black marks disappeared 



