256 lOctober, 



from Mr. Whitehead, and although none of them were quite so dark 

 in colour as one or two of the previous specimens, and one was mucli 

 greener, they were evidently the same thing. At this time, too, they 

 began to spin up, although still quite small, and as the pupaB seemed 

 little more than a third the size of that of gamma, I became still more 

 confirmed in my doubt about them, and having failed in my attempts 

 to find a description of any larva agreeing with them, I began to have 

 visions of a new Plusia ! 



On August 4th Mr. Whitehead sent me one of two moths he had 

 just bred from some of the larvae, and on the 6th he forwarded 

 another ; whilst, in the meantime, I also had bred a good specimen, 

 the only one which emerged from my larvae. All the moths were ex- 

 ceedingly small, less than half the size of a number of ovdan^vj gamma 

 which I netted for comparison on the Lancashire coast (where the 

 species was flying in thousands) a fortnight ago. But, apart from 

 size and the tone of colour, I could find nothing whatever to distin- 

 guish them from Plusia gamma. The colour was* very perceptibly 

 paler and more silvery, without any of the purple tint which charac- 

 terized all the freshly emerged specimens I caught this year, and also 

 all the specimens in my cabinet. " 



All the larvae when full-grown were very small ; probably half of 

 mine died without spinning at all, and from those that did spin and 

 change to pupae, only one moth managed to emerge. Mr. Whitehead 

 also wrote of his, that " many cocoons were imperfect and came to 

 nothing." 



The subject is very interesting, and possibly some of the readers 

 of the Ent. Mo. Mag. may be able to suggest an explanation. The 

 colouring of the larvae I am satisfied was perfectly natural, and not 

 due in any way to disease or feebleness. The larva I described was 

 darker than the majority, but the others were sufficiently near it to be 

 included in the same type. 



Length, when full grown, about an inch. G-round-colour verj dark olive-green, 

 in one specimen nearly black : head and prolegs intensely black and shining : two 

 very fine, interrupted, almost inconspicuous yellow lines extend through the dorsal 

 region, followed outside by a broad, bright yellow, double subdorsal line, the outer 

 of the two stripes being narrower than the inner ; spiracular stripes also broad and 

 bright yellow : tubercles raised, large and distinct, black, surmounted with a pale 

 greyish-yellow spot, though these paler spots are less conspicuous on the side than on 

 the dorsal tubercles, each spot emits a single short, stiff hair of the same grey colour : 

 spiracles greyish-yellow, narrowly edged with brown : ventral surface dark olivo- 

 green, the prolegs having on the outsides a large cup-shaped black mark. 



Huddersfield : September 1th, 1892. 



