196 rJaniuiiy, 



object in Mr. James Batty of ShefEeld. From him I received on the 2l8t of last 

 July four larvffl, which he had taken from Eriophorum vaginatum. They were 

 found feeding a little above the root-stocks growing in a damp soil on wild moor- 

 land ; and Mr. Batty kindly sent a large tuft of the growing grass, which sufSced 

 for bringing the larvae to full growth. 



Of the four larvee, one was evidently diseased, as it died on the evening after its 

 arrival, but the remaining three were lively and fed well ; and, as one of them seemed 

 to be full-fed by the 25th of the month, I then kept it apart from the rest, and saw 

 it was beginning to spin up on the same evening : on the 31st, I made an examination, 

 and was glad to observe it in the pupa state, reposing in a perpendicular position 

 within a slight cocoon composed of a few silken threads of rather open work, holding 

 around it some gnawings of grass and a little frass, and situated amid the sheaths 

 of the grass shoots. The perfect insect (a (?) came forth on August 15th; but, 

 unfortunately, the tuft of grass grew mouldy, and thus the other two never reached 

 the imago state. 



The full-grown larva was three-quarters of an inch in length, and of moderate 

 stoutness, cylindrical in character, except that the thickest segments were the third 

 and fourth, the body tapering from them to the head, which was the smallest, and 

 again behind most gradually and slightly to the rounded anal tip, the plate on which 

 was flattened, and rather depressed in the middle, having a slight marginal ridge 

 behind. 



The colour of the head, the plate next to it, as well as that on the liinder seg- 

 ment, was pale reddish-brown, and highly polished, while the plate on the second 

 segment was margined in front with dark brown ; the mouth and ocelli dark brown ; 

 the body of a middle tint of purplish brown above, and paler below the spiracles, 

 including the belly and legs, the skin though smooth, quite without gloss ; a dorsal 

 fainter paler line was visible chiefly at the end of each segment ; the sub-dorsal 

 stripe a little more distinct and paler ; the round tubercular warty spots were all 

 very dark brown and shining, each being furnished with an excessively fine short 

 brown hair ; the usual trapezoidal series on the back, gradually decreasing in size 

 from the fourth to the eleventh segment, were more conspicuous on the thoracic 

 segments, for there they were transversely oval in form, as they also were on the 

 twelfth and on the front sub-division of tlie thii'teenth, and considerably enlarged on 

 these last ; most of the spots along the sides were round, a small one a little above 

 and a large one a little behind each black spiracle, while lower down towards the 

 belly were two more in a line with each other parallel to the line of spiracles ; those 

 on the sides of the third and fourth segments were larger and somewhat of a drop 

 shape, the largest being behind, below them were three others, smaller, forming a 

 triangle on each of those segments ; the side spots were also enlarged on the twelfth 

 and thirteenth ; the hind ridge of the anal plate and the tips of the ventral legs 

 were dark ochreous-brown. 



The above description exactly suited to the three healthy larva?, and also to the 

 sickly one as far as details went, but the colour of the skin of that larva was pale 

 greyish. 



The pupa was half an inch in length, moderately thick in proportion, widest 

 across the thorax, and from thence diminishing a little towards the blunt and 

 rounded anal extremity, which was furnished with two sharp bristle-like spikes 



