18 [June, 



Tlie larva, when full-grown, measures one and u quarter inches in length, is of 

 moderate stoutness, cylindrieal, with the head a trifle smaller than the second seg- 

 ment, which is in turn a little less than the third, the anal segment tapering a little 

 behind : its ground colour now is pale ochreous or pale brownish-ochreous, the head 

 is delicately freckled and streaked with dark brown down the front of each lobe, the 

 second segment has ,a dark brown or brownish-grey plate through which the fine 

 dorsal and broader sub-dorsal lines of ground colour are risible ; on the rest the 

 dorsal line can be faintly discerned as a fine tliread of ground colour running through 

 the dorsal blackish spots and ill defined pear-shapes that follow them, both front and 

 hind pair of black dots are now equally distinct on the back of each segment, a 

 similar dot is situated a little above each spiracle, which last is whitish faintly out- 

 lined with black ; a patch of dark grey or blackish freckles anteriorly in the sub-dorsal 

 region, and some broken patches of lines of freckles extending in curves to the 

 spiracidar region on each segment are now the only remains of the design mentioned 

 in the previous stage ; this change having been brought about by the scattering ol 

 the dark atoms which before were confined in lines ; the belly and legs are of the 

 gromid coloiu'. 



As will be seen from what follows, there is considei-able resemblance between 

 this larva and some of its congeners, but to my eye its most striking characteristic 

 is the absence of the slanting streaks or chevrons which tJiet/ so generally have. 



The pupa is little more than five-eighths of an inch long, stout in proportion, 

 the wing, antennse, and trunk cases projecting in a blunt point over the abdomen, 

 which tapers off gradually ; the abdominal rings are partly gi-auulous ; the colour 

 of the thorax and wing cases is deep reddish-brown, the abdomen dark brown. 



M. Quen^e has observed of the larva of albimacula that " in a manner it i-e- 

 " sembles that of capsincola, and when they are together on the same plant they 

 " afford fine exercise for the eyes to distinguish them." 



" It is found upon Silene nutans, and sometimes, but much more i-arely, on 

 " Silene inflata. In captivity it accommodates itself well to these two plants, also 

 " to Lychnis dioica." 



" This caterpillar is not rare where Silene nutans grow, that is to say in the arid 

 " and hilly places of certain woods." — Wm. Bucklee, Emsworth : Mai/ 11th, 1874. 



Cosmopteryx Scribaiella bred. — Professor Frey of Zurich, writes to me that on 

 the morning of the 25th April, he bred nine specimens of C. Scribaiella ! 



Last September he had suggested to Herr Boll of Bremgarten, that he should 

 search the reeds (Arundo phragmites) in that neighbourhood for the chance of 

 finding larva) of Cosmopteryx Lienigiella. Herr Boll found some mines in September, 

 and thereby Professor Frey was himself attracted to Bremgarten ; and he and Herr 

 Boll, early in October, found these mines on the reeds very common along the banks 

 of the Eeuss, and they could have collected them by hundreds in a day. Being, 

 however, firmly convinced they were only collecting the already well-known larva of 

 C. Lienigiella, they soon desisted from collecting more, and now C. Scribaiella has 

 been bred from these reed-miners. 



Descriptions of this insect will be found in the Stettin. Entomolog. Zeitung, 

 1850, p. 197 ; in Herrich-Schiiffer, V. p. 281, fig. 998 ; in tlie Transactions of the 

 Entomological Society of London, 3rd Scries, Vol. I. pp. 612, 6-io, and G51. It will 



