I 1874.] 17 



uf its larva, ij-c. — On July lOtli, 1873, I liad tho pleasure of recoiving from Mr. 

 Stainton five larvfc in difFcrent stages of growth, which had been found feeding on 

 the unripe seeds of Silene nutans by Mr. II. Moncreaff ; these I at once saw were a 

 species of Diantkoecia new to me, and, on referring to an extract from the " Annales 

 de la Societe Entomologique dc France " published in 1830, I found there an account 

 of albimacula by il. Grucnee, which seemed to suit them well ; I would not, however' 

 venture upon publishing the notes I made of them, until their identity had been 

 established beyond doubt, and this has now been done most satisfactorily. Mr. 

 Moncreaff has bred a specimen of albimacula as early as the 6th of May from the 

 UarvoD ho collected last summer, by placing some of the pupae in a warm room. We 

 are now sure, therefore, that albimacula is a species which breeds in England. For 

 Isome years it had been relegated to the list of reputed British species (though 

 Stainton's Manual kept it in its place), until the announcement of its re-discovery 

 [\\ 18G5, by the capture of a single specimen, which was sent to Dr. Knaggs for 

 identiflcation, as recorded in the 1st Volume of The Entomologists' Monthly 

 [Magazine, p. 237. 



The larvffi I hadj fed well on the Silene nutans that accompanied them, and soon 



,to out the contents of the capsules of which Mr. Moncreaff kindly sent a further 



supply, and when these dried up I found the three younger larvee (two having already 



turned to pupa>) take very well both to Silene injlata and to maritima, and between 



the l-±th and 25th of August they retired into the soil prepared for them. 



The young larva when a quarter of an inch long is of a greenish-grey colour, and 

 darker than it afterwards becomes ; at this time it has pale dorsal and sub-dorsal 

 lines ; with a darker stripe along the spiracles, bounded above by a paler undulating 

 line ; some faint darker marks along the back indicate the rudiments of the future 

 dorsal design ; a pale stripe runs beneath the spii-acles, and the belly is darker 

 greenish-grey. At its next moult, when about three-eighths of an inch long, the 

 ground colour is cither a pale drab or pale ochreous-yellow with the design of dark 

 grey or blackish diamond shapes and spots on the back tolerably distinct ; and, when 

 it has attained the length of about three-quarters of an inch, the wliole pattern of 

 its mai'kings is (as usual) more clearly defined than at any other period, com- 

 posed as they are of closely aggregated greyish or blackish atoms, which, as the larva 

 grows, become more dispersed with increasing intervals of the ground coloui- between 

 them ; but in this clearly defined stage of marking the ground colour is ycUowish- 

 ochreous, the dorsal pattern consists of a somewhat ovate blackish spot at the 

 beginning, followed by a diamond or pear-shape extending to the end of each seg- 

 ment ; the front half of each of these pears or diamonds is rather bare of freckles 

 within its outline, showing the ground colour there more or less, while the hinder 

 part is fdlcd up so as to look blackish, the anterior pairs of tubercular black dots 

 show distinct on the clear unfrecklcd ground of the back, the hinder pairs of dots 

 are often attached to the lateral angles of the diamond shapes, but not invariably 

 60, though tlu-y arc always touched by a blackish line of freckles that curves or 

 festoons along from the hinder dot of one segment (o the hinder dot of the next ; 

 beneath this is the sub-dorsal intci-val of clear and paler ground colour ; and then 

 come two broad and irrcgidarly thickened stripes of freckles, which about the middle 

 of each segment slope towards each other till they touch, then returning to their 

 previous level ; the groiuid in the space just below the point of contiicl in (ilUd with 

 firekles wliieli i>arti} surnuuid (lie white spiracle outlined with liiiiek. 



