1883.] 175 



various groups of seed-feeders. There certainly are exceptions, such 

 as Antithesia gentianana and marginana, Asthenia strohilella, and 

 Eupoecilia roseana, which obligingly remain in their respective seed- 

 heads all the winter, requiring only to be kept cool and not too dry, 

 and not even needing to be wintered out of doors. The feeders on 

 Papilionaceous seeds, such as Stigmonota orohana and dorsana, after 

 leaving the seed-pods will spin their tough cocoons on rotten wood or 

 calico, and may also be wintered indoors. But it is quite otherwise 

 with the genera Catopfria, Endopisa, Carpocapsa, and parts of GrapTio- 

 litha, Semasia, Eupoecilia, &c. Most of these feed up with very great 

 rapidity, becoming full-fed almost before the parent moths have ceased 

 to fly — say, within a month or six weeks of the time of the egg being 

 laid — and remain for nine or ten months in cocoon in the larva state, 

 in most cases leaving their food and spinning up among debris, or under 

 stones, or otl:\er suitable places. Having to arrange for so long a 

 repose it is natural that they should wish to choose a suitable and 

 comfortable spot, but some seem unnecessarily fastidious. All that I 

 have recorded of the restless, obstinate, and suicidal tendencies of 

 Sciaphila larvae applies equally to these. They must be tied down in 

 flower-pots tightly and the covering material strained as already sug- 

 gested^ — not omitting to grease the edge — and when they find that 

 they cannot really escape they may generally be tempted to spin up 

 by the introduction of pieces of rotten wood, cork, hollow sticks, 

 folded paper or rag, or the stems of their food plants. Sometimes 

 nothing will give satisfaction, and the larvae, after sulking for weeks, 

 will actually dry up and die without any material alteration in their 

 appearance. I have known dozens of larvae of Catoptria cemulana to 

 die in this way after leaving their food — the seeds of the golden-rod. 

 On the approach of winter the pots containing larvae of any of these 

 groups must- — ^the hole in the bottom being first stopped so as to 

 exclude insect foes, but allow drainage — be placed in the open air, 

 exposed to the influences of any weather that may come. It is well 

 to look at them occasionally lest the covering gets rotten and broken, 

 or the pot is rolled over by some active cat, but, making allowance for 

 accidents, larvae kept in this manner out of doors until the end of 

 April or even into May, will generally produce a fair proportion of 

 moths. 



The internal, stem- and root-feeding species require very various 

 treatment. The succulent stems in which the Halonotce principally 

 feed, require to be kept alive in moist earth until the larvae are full- 

 fed, and care must afterwards be taken that the stems do not ferment 



