19G [February, 



out. Some of these larvae I sent to Mr. Hellins, who examined them 

 for me under his microscope, and confirmed my view of their structure. 

 Towards the end of June, Mr. Hellins made further acquaintance 

 with this species ; he had gone with his nephew to fish in the Exeter 

 canal, but, to use John Leech's explanation of one of his pictures of 

 Mr. Briggs, " the wind that day was not in a favourable quarter," and 

 so, to avoid a drenching from the S.E. rain beating in from the sea, 

 they had to take shelter in a stable, where presently they observed a 

 specimen of the moth sitting on the brick wall, and before long ever 

 so many more, and, while trying to count them, they noticed several 

 of the cocoons spun in the mortar-grooves between the bricks, at a | 

 height above the ground of from three to five feet, some perhaps more, 

 clear away from the ledges of the rack and manger, where the larvae 

 must have fed on the matted and dusty hay seed husks ; they noticed 

 no straw in the stable, but only a coarse kind of hay, made from 

 grasses and herbage grown on the canal banks, amongst which could 

 be distinguished the seed-heads of Holcus lannfus ; quantities of this 

 chaffy rubbish filled the chinks, and lay about on all the ledges with a 

 thick matting of dust, and from a farrago of this nature they stirred 

 out two or three of the larvae ; they carried home five or six cocoons, 

 and in a day or two bred two of the moths, and sent the remaining 

 cocoons to me, and I also bred from them two pingiiinalis on 14th and 

 19th of July ; whilst from the larvje I had myself found, the moths 

 continued to appear fi'om 25th July to 7th August. 



From these observations I think it will be seen that the larvae 

 live in comparative darkness, in stables, barns, and outhouses, amid 

 accumulations of the rubbish above mentioned, hidden within a pro- 

 tecting sheath or gallery nearly or quite close to the ground, composed 

 of materials in which they find both their food and their covering; 

 unless disturbed, they are never to be seen whilst growing, as they do 

 not voluntarily leave their abodes until full-fed, but then only do they 

 desert their quarters, and may occasionally be observed ascending 

 walls to find a suitable place for pupation. 



The egg of pinguinalis is of a good size for the moth, of a 

 roundish-oval form, almost globular, though there is a bigger and a 

 smaller end ; the shell, dull and granulated all over, is whitish or 

 creamy-white ; a few hours before hatching a light brownish patch 

 shows through one end of the shell, and a very faint pinkish-grey 

 tint on other parts. 



The newly-hatched larva is of a very pale whitish flesh-colour, 

 with yellowish-brown head, and ]ilate separated from it by a margin 



