46 [Februaiy, 



with some grass and a few beech leaves, she laid on the muslin at the top fifty-five 

 eggs during the night of the 4th, and the next night sixteen more on a beech leaf. 

 Calling to mind the difficulties others had experienced in trying to rear this larva, I 

 resolved to increase the chances of success by distributing them. Accordingly, Dr. 

 Chapman had ten, the same number being sent to two other well known Entomo- 

 logists ; while the sixteen eggs on the beech leaf were handed to my friend Mr. 

 C. Viggers, of this place. 



Dr. Chapman has already recorded elsewhere his mode of dealing with the 

 larva, which, though somewhat artificial, was the most successful of all the methods 

 tried, resulting in four fine moths during the first half of last March, which he 

 most liberally presented to me, quite unexpectedly, and, as I kept many more eggs 

 than he had, certainly undeservedly. The other gentlemen, excepting Mr. Yiggers, 

 failed, with myself, in getting the larvae through the severe winter, though we had 

 the pleasure of seeing them in their last handsome coats, so well represented by the 

 late W. Buckler, and reproduced in the last volume of his figures published by the 

 Kay Society. It is needless to describe the larva, it having been so well done already, 

 but I may give a few particulars as to the dates of moulting. 



The first egg hatched June 18th, 10 a.m., the bulk of the other larvae out and 

 eating egg-shells next morning about tlie same time. They were greyish, with black 

 spots, and brownish heads, looped decidedly in walking, only twelve legs being at first 

 developed : indeed, the two anterior pairs of ventral legs were not distinctly visible 

 till after the second moult. June 25th and 26th, they were laid up on the spikelets 

 of the inflorescence of the grass (Poa annua) for their first moult, in which position 

 they were not very easy to see ; one observed just left its skin behind at 10 a.m., the 

 26th, then very pale, but lines more distinct. July 4th, laid up for second moult, 

 most began feeding again during July 6th. July 13th and 14th, third moult ; 22nd 

 and 23rd, fourth moult ; August 4th, fifth moult, and one of the largest had moulted 

 for the sixth time on August 25th, the others following in the course of the next 

 fortnight. After September they did not do so well, and by the second week in 

 November I had only five left to face the winter, and these eventually perished. My 

 only consolation now was to go and look at those under the care of Mr. Yiggers, who 

 had fitted up a cage specially for them, making the surroundings as much like 

 nature as possible, out of doors. There is little doubt they go on feeding at times 

 in their native haunts all through the winter, as we often caught sight of them on 

 chilly nights. Thus, on the 13th January, I saw five on the grass culms, being the 

 first time any had been seen since the 9th of December, the hard frost intervening. 

 The renewal of the frost sent them down again, but the more lasting thaw of the 

 20th of January woke them up again, and on the 23rd eleven were counted. After 

 this they were to be seen on the milder nights, though in decreasing numbers, up to 

 the middle of April. When they had all gone to the roots of the grass, we began 

 to look anxiously for the moths, after the end of May, but only two appeared, and 

 these not till the 23rd and 25th of June. As they were both males, the brood could 

 not be continued. 



A close scrutiny of the tree trunks in the locality last June was fruitless, as far 

 as P. leucophcsa was concerned. 



Ashford : December dOth, 1891. 



