122 [May. 



seed-feeding larva of this genus, but, from the nature of its case, its 

 appearance is so very deceptive, that it is ver}^ difficult to detect these 

 larvae, even on a careful search." 



The deception is most complete, for at first not a trace of the 

 white inner case is to be seen peeping above the husks, and the capsule, 

 still closely shut, wears the most natural and innocent of looks, so that 

 nothing but some awkwardness in the position in which it may happen 

 to be moored can betray it. If this innocent looking capsule be 

 opened, there will be found inside a small silk bag, and within this the 

 larva itself, very small, but, nevertheless, in its penultimate skin, this 

 being, so far as my experience goes, the invariable age at which its 

 case-bearing life begins. The little silk case is literally a bag, for 

 there is no opening whatever at the anal end, and the f rass has, there- 

 fore, to accumulate within, or else must be passed downward by a 

 kind of wriggling movement and god rid of by the mouth. That the 

 latter is the method followed can scarcely be doubted, as it is quite 

 unusual to find even so much as a single grain retained when an ex- 

 amination is made. 



I am indebted to Mr. Eletcher, who has long been familiar with 

 the insect, for having pointed out to me that it was probably the 

 alticolella of Zeller ; whilst Mr. Stainton's dictum, after seeing my 

 specimens, was " agrees well enough with Zeller's alticolella.'" 



{To he continued.) 



FURTHER NOTES ON EUPITRECIA EXTENSABIA. 

 BY G. T. PORRITT, F.L S. 



Since I found the larvae of Eupithecia ecctensaria near Hunstanton, 

 at the end of August, 1889, I have reared some hundreds of them, 

 and a few notes, supplementary to Mr. Barrett's (Ent. Mo. Mag., 

 XXV, p. 258), will probably be not without interest. The larvae col- 

 lected at large produced moths freely the following June, and I had 

 no difficulty in pairing a number of them over a growing potted plant 

 of Artemisia maritima, which I had had for some time awaiting their 

 advent. Soon eggs were deposited in considerable numbers ; they 

 were placed singly, but often a number in close proximity, on the 

 slender leaves of the food-plant, and each moth, after laying three or 

 four eggs or so, would usually fly up from the plant to the gauze 

 covering, to fly down again almost immediately to some other sprig, 

 and continually repeat the same performance. No doubt its habit in 

 the natural habitat would be to fly from sprig to sprig, and from plant 



