July, 1906.] ]^45 



Some of the rootstocks, when received, certainly contained two, 

 if not more, larvae apiece, and these afterwards readily moved from 

 one rootstock to another, as occasion required. On the contents of 

 the tin, in which they were forwarded, being unpacked, two individuals 

 were found out of their burrows, and one of these had evidently just 

 been feeding on a leaf of B. crispus, and had eaten a good-sized hole 

 right through it. The food- plant is given by Mr, Barrett as being 

 "common dock {JRumex),'' but, this term being equally applicable to 

 any one of the various common species of dock, I succeeded, after con- 

 siderable trouble, in getting it identified by the distinguished botanists, 

 the Eevs. E. S. Marshall and E. P. Murray. It seems surprising that 

 the larva of this extremely local species, believed, for over half-a-century 

 to be true to its specific name and quite confined to boggy places, should 

 have at length been discovered in a dry spot, away from any marsh 

 (though there is water near at hand), and feeding upon a plant that 

 is common in dry situations, although it may be found in wet ones 

 as well. 



PUPA. 



The following description was made, on July 20th last, from a 

 pupa resulting from one of the Folkestone larvae mentioned above : — 



Length, 7 mm. Greatest breadth, 1"75 mm. Kather cylindrical, with the 

 abdomen tapering slightly towards, and abruptly at, the anal extremity. Segmental 

 divisions clearly defined. Skin smooth and polished, with only a few very short 

 and inconspicuous hairs. Head, in which the eyes show through as large black spots, 

 and thorax, dark orange-brown. Antenna!-, leg-, and ioing-cascs, with clearly-defined 

 margins (especially so in these last), smooth, polished, orange-brown, all reaching to 

 the middle of the sixth abdominal segment. Abdomen brownish-orange, rather 

 more strongly tinged with brown posteriorly. Spiracles conspicuous, having the 

 appearance of small, pale, brown-ringed dots. Anal extremity terminating dorsally 

 in a short horn-like blackish knob, near which are a few rather long, hooked, orange 

 bristles, and bearing a strong crescent of similar bristles ventrally. The "free" 

 abdominal segments are the fifth and sixth. 



The pupa gradually becomes darker in colour as the time for 

 emergence approaches. 



In every instance the cocoon was made, not in the crown of the 

 root where they are said to (/. c.) be found as a rule, but in a chamber 

 formed among the young leaves and stems that had sprouted there- 

 from after the shoot had been cut off, and had then died away : this 

 chamber was smoothly but sparingly lined with closely-spun tough 

 white silk, which [had much the appearance of tiosue paper. One 

 cocoon proper, i.e., with the external coating of vegetable refuse left 

 out of account, measured 13'5 mm. long, by about 3 mm. broad. 



