1 |. Juno, 



Imd tlic ]ileasure to receive several larvje, wliicli proved to be this species, found in 

 Herefordshire by Dr. J. H. Wood, who also most kindly furnished me with many 

 interesting particulars of their habits. 



The young larviE were detected on stunted sloe bushes, at first feeding on the 

 loaves under a whitish web, and on becoming larger they constructed along the 

 branches silken galleries more or less covered with their long narrow pellets of frass, 

 neatly arranged side by side. 



As they occurred on a sheep-walk, wool was found adhering to the bushes and 

 sometimes to the webs of the larvte, thus forming a rather tangled mass ; faded rem- 

 nants of leaves, silk, and wool being matted together, and amongst all this their 

 galleries lay, making it difficult to trace them ; not that the presence of wool seemed 

 to be neeessai-y, but was only worked through when the larva found it in their way, 

 many of the galleries being quite free from wool. 



The full grown larva, when stretched out, varies from a little over five-eighths 

 to nearly six-eighths of an inch in length, cylindrical, slender, tapering but very 

 little in front, though the head is a trifle less than the second segment, while from 

 the eleventh to the anal extremity it tapers gradually; the head in outline is full and 

 rounded, and its surface roughened ; each segment beyond the fourth is sub-divided 

 across the back by a deep wrinkle into two portions, the greater portion being in 

 front, another wrinkle sub-divides the hinder portion, but only on the sides of the 

 segments; the spiracular region is inflated and puckered ; the ventral legs are much 

 beneath the body. 



The colour of the roughened head is dark brown, with the base of the papillae 

 and a transverse streak above the mouth brownish-grey, the sui-face glistening ; the 

 plate on the second segment and that on the anal tip are both black and shining, the 

 rest in the young stage rather olive-brown, afterwards becoming deep chocolate- 

 brown ; the skin smooth but without gloss, the ventral legs semi-transparent, the 

 anterior legs spotted willi black ; the occllatcd spot on the side of the third and 

 twelfth segments is brownish-gi'ey with a black centre, the hair from it being longer 

 than that which proceeds from each of the usual tubercular situations, but all the 

 hairs are alike in being dark brown, fine, and pointed ; the small circular spiracles 

 are of the ground colour. 



By the 19th of June the larva? had spun themselves up amongst the twigs of 

 sloe in greyish silken cocoons, one of which, on the 22nd of the month, I cut open, 

 and found the pupa to be three-eighths of an inch in length, of moderate plumpness, 

 thickest in the middle ; the wing-cases long, the abdomen bluntly tipped and ter- 

 minating with seven most minute bristles curved at their extremities : in colour it 

 was a deep mahogany-brown, the abdominal divisions darker brown, the whole 

 surface very glossy. Four moths were bred on July 19th and 20th. 



Another fact in the economy of suavella remains to be mentioned, that it i.s not 

 confined to sloe, but is also found on hawthorn bushes ; Dr. Wood having taken 

 some larvse from them on a common, which were kept separate, and finally produced 

 this species. He also noticed in the instance of two or three larvae that had been 

 disappointed in pupating, and were wandering about amongst the twigs of sloe, that 

 they had become tinged with greenish, and wanted earth to make up in. — William 

 Buckler, Kmsworth : May '[Slh, 1875. * 



