38 i-'<'iy, 



sugar and water frequently supplied ; in the evening of tlie 23rd, I saw 

 one egg had been laid on the glass cylinder, and on the 25th, another 

 egg on the opjjosite side of the same glass enclosing some of the 

 Cerasiium. 



On the 1st of June, a friend brought me some plants of C. 

 arvense in full bloom, kindly obtained near Lewes, as the plant does 

 not occur in this locality, and these were potted and protected with 

 glass just in time for a second consignment of five living arhidi from 

 Mr. Stainton, who yet in a day or two suj^plemented them with four 

 more ; an egg was very soon laid on a leaf of arvense, and on the 7th, 

 T saw another egg wi\s laid on the base of the calyx near the stalk of 

 an expanded flower of one of the same plants ; these two eggs I cut 

 off and sent to Mr. Hellins for his examination, who had an accident 

 which settled the first egg, and the second he pronounced to be addled. 



Meantime I had often looked in one pot of C. vuhjatum wherein 

 no egg could ever be detected while the moths were alive nor after the 

 cylinder was taken away — yet, on the 8th of June, I was greatly de- 

 lighted to see a larva quietly sitting on a stem, in an attitude rather 

 suggestive of the letter S — after recovering equanimity from such an 

 agreeable surprise, I became aware of a hole in the side of the seed 

 capsule a little above it, and soon detected a second larva sitting 

 quietly in the same manner, and then a third larva partly protruding 

 from one of two contiguous capsules, and next, the hole in another 

 capsule from whence the second larva had eaten its way out, like the 

 first evidently soon to moult, a process they both accomplished in 

 evening of the 10th, and henceforward lived outside more or less 

 exposed, feeding well on both flowers and unripe seeds ; on the 13th, 

 I saw they were again waiting for another moult which occurred a. 

 little before midnight of the 14th with one, and with the other at some 

 early hour in the morn ensuing ; they soon resumed feeding and had 

 grown decidedly by evening, and continued to eat quite voi'aciously, 

 but less of floM'ers and more of seeds, eating out a number of capsules 

 within a few hours, in this reminding me of the Diantlioecice ; they 

 were full-fed by ISth of June, when they left their food and lay up 

 motionless for a day and night, as though to purge themselves of their 

 grossness while secreting the needful silk before entering the earth 

 for pupation. 



These larvae conveyed an instructive lesson in showing why I failed 

 the year befoi'e to get any eggs laid on sprays of the food plant when 

 gathered, also on this occasion the wonderful instinct and ju'evision, I 

 may say reasoning power, of the parent moth or moths who refused 



