1SS3.] 113 



Description of the larvci of ToHrix Lafauryana.—The full-grown larva is not 

 very active, cjlindrical, but slightly attenuated at both ends ; [segments distinctly 

 divided ; of a pea-gi-een colour, with a darker green dorsal line, and yellowish-green 

 between the segments. Spots paler than the ground colour, but rather inconspicuous ; 

 hairs moderately long, about four or five on each segment ; head dull yellowish- 

 green ; jaws brown and eyes black ; dorsal and anal plates of a darker green than 

 tlie ground-colour, and about the ninth segment there is an ochreous-brown internal 

 dorsal vessel ; legs green. 



On Myrica gale (bog myrtle) in June and July, drawing together three or four 

 of the younger terminal leaves, and feeding principally on the apices of its leafy 



i habitation. 



Sometimes the larva changes to the pupa in its abode, but far more frequently 



' it descends to the ground to spin up in moss, dead leaves and other rubbish. The 

 pupa is black, and the moth emerges about thi-ee weeks or a month after the larva 

 has assumed the pupal state. — E. A. Atmoee, King's Lynn : August \Zth, 1883. 



I [Mr. Atmore has very kindly supplied me with larvae of this species. From 



these I have reared a few very satisfactory specimens, one fine red female being the 

 exact counterpart of my French type. Others are decidedly paler, approaching the 



i colour of sorhiana. These are also smaller than the type. In the case of Mr. 

 Atmore's larva?, as well as of mine, the proportion of females reared is considerably 

 over that of males. — C. G. B.] 



The Isle of Man form of Vanessa urticce. — In the Ent. Mo. Mag. for this 

 month, p. 82, Mr. Stainton alludes to " the Isle of Man form of Vanessa tirticcB." 

 I There is no Isle of Man form of Vanessa urticce as distinct from the ordinary British 

 ! type of the species. Many years ago Mr. Birchall noticed that all the specimens 

 taken in the island, or bred from larvse collected there that season, were much 

 smaller than the ordinary type of the species, and he distributed a good many of 

 these specimens amongst British collections. This no doubt caused Newman to 

 believe that Manx specimens were " uniformly much smaller than in England " 

 (Newman's British Butterflies, p. 52) ; but although since then I have repeatedly 

 been in the Isle of Man in different years, and have reared large numbers of Vanessa 

 urticcB from larvae collected there, in the hope of getting the small form, I have 

 never seen or heard of a specimen differing in any respect from the ordinary type. 

 There is no doubt that in the year Mr. Birchall obtained his, the larvae were either 

 starved, or there was some other exceptional circumstance to account for it. Only 

 this year, indeed, at the end of July, specimens I noticed near Douglas seemed so 

 fine and large on the wing, that I watched them settle, solely to ascertain if they 

 were not poli/chloros ! — Geo. T. Poeeitt, Huddersfield : September 6th, 1883. 



THE BRITISH SPECIES OF IDIOCERUS. 

 BY JAMES EDWARDS. 



The British species of Idiocerus are now fifteen in number, as 

 against the ten enumerated in my table of the genus at page 52 of 



K 



