1882.] 149 



NATUEAL HISTORY OF ENDOTRICHA FLAMMEALIS. 

 BY WILLIAM BUCKLEE. 



While engaged in ^ividiying Jlammealis from the egg to the perfect 

 insect, it has been my good fortune again to be associated with Mr. 

 Wm. R. Jeffrey in the deeply interesting task, who not only at the 

 beginning supplied me with ova, but subsequently with the most 

 favoured and promising of his larvae, on occasions, and at a very 

 critical period when failure seemed almost inevitable, and for his kind 

 and invaluable assistance my grateful thanks are here recorded. 



I received the eggs on 28th of July, 1881, about a dozen of them 

 being laid deep among the long hairs in the axils of the flower and 

 stalk of Lotus major, fourteen on leaves of Corylus avellana, five on a 

 spray of Melampyrum pratense, and one on a leaf of sallow. 



The eggs hatched in the morning of 7th of August, and the young 

 larvae were supplied with leaves of all the above mentioned and a 

 tender young leaf of oak in addition ; at the end of three days the 

 softest of the hazel leaves showed a decided preference had been given 

 to them by the tiny larvae, though the Lotus had also been eaten, but 

 of the other leaves only the oak showed any trace of attack, and in so 

 slight a manner that it was not tried again for some time. 



At the end of a week many were laid up for their first moult, and 

 this operation was not completed until the 17th, when the needful 

 changing of food became a hazardous piece of work, and proved fatal 

 to a few of the larvae. 



Two individuals more forward than the others got over their 

 second moult on the 26th, while their companions lay waiting for 

 their turn, and by the time they had completed their change of skin I 

 became unpleasantly aware of having no more than eight larvae in all 

 remaining. 



The third moult happened with one larva on the 8th of September, 

 and to the remainder on the 11th to 13th, and while changing their 

 food next day my long growing suspicion of cannibalism was verified 

 — for, just as on previous occasions, another larva was missing, and on 

 my scrutinizing what seemed a cast skin, it proved too surely to be 

 the remains of a larva, in great part devoured, and I had no doubt of 

 the culprit being that one which had moulted soonest, it having slain 

 its victim while helplessly laid up. 



Hitherto, while changing food, I had occasionally noticed a dead 

 larva in a suspicious condition, but they were too few to account for 

 the number of mysterious disappearances which began after the first 



