DESCRIPTION OF THE LARYA OF BEPEESSARIA BADIELLA. 



By the Late WILLIAM BUCKLER.* 



On the 28tli of May, 1882, I received in a quill three little larvaa 

 found the previous morning by Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher on Freshwater 

 Down, Isle of Wight, living under the leaves of RypochcBris radicata, 

 one of the Compositce, of which three little plants accompanied the 

 larvse. At this time they were nearly 5 mm. long, cylindrical, of a 

 cinnamon-brown colour, with shining darker dots, a blackish-brown 

 frontal plate and anal plate. By the second of June one of these had 

 added 1 mm. to its length and seemed to have moulted, the cinnamon- 

 brown being rather darker than before, the tubercular dots on the back 

 were nearly in a line and darker brown than the body, the plate on the 

 second segment glossy black, the head darker brown than the body, 

 the anal plate shining black, and a transverse narrow black plate on 

 the dorsal portion of the front of the anal segment. 



These larv« live in fine white silken webs between two leaves, or 

 under one leaf, which is spun fast upon some firm substance ; they live 

 in this way concealed, though by their feeding on the lower cuticle of 

 the leaf a transparent blotch becomes visible, and they push out from 

 their dwellings little heaps of blackish excrement. 



By the 7th of June the most advanced had reached the length of 

 8 mm. ; on the 16th I figured one of them, but minus the blackish 

 tubercular dots, which are at this stage more trapezoidally arranged on 

 the back ; a black shield was outside the anal legs. 



On the 11th of July I received more of these larvae from Mr. 

 Fletcher, one of them grown to be 20 mm. long ; it was of a dark red 

 colour, greenish when the segmental divisions were stretched, the dots 

 black, ringed with greenish, the black plate on the second segment 

 divided in the centre, and with paler yellowish margin of skin in front, 

 the anal plate black and a small black transverse oblong on the front 

 part of that segment. The head dark reddish-brown, anterior legs 

 black; all the dark red skin dull, the greenish divisions glistening 

 a little, the black dots, head and plates glossy, a fine hair arising 

 from each dot. 



These five later larv« were put with three vigorous growing plants 

 on the 16th, and by the 23rd every part of the plants had been devoured, 

 and for want of food the larvae had devoured one another, only two 

 escaping the massacre, one of these had spun up in an earth-covered 



~ * This descriptioiTiTgiven by theMnd permission of the Rev T. Wiltshire, the Secretary of 

 the Ray Society-that Society being now in possession of M»\Buckler s valuable iK)tes as well as 

 his magnificent collection of drawings of larvse, which are to be published by the Society. 



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