IE 



204 [February, 



the next it could find. Unfortunately, I was unable to breed this larva, as I could 

 not satisfy its requirement with regard to a suitable pupating place. 1 had had 

 difficulty with it in keeping it on its food when young, but I circumvented it in this 

 respect by hanging the catkins in bunches by a thread in a glass jar. They remained 

 on and in the catkin so long as it was fresh, and when I found them off, I renewed 

 the catkins and put them on again. Afterwards, when I found them in greater 

 plenty, I let them take their chance rather more. When full-fed, I put about a 

 dozen into a glass with some sand, to be certain that I had one kind of larva only ; 

 but on looking at them again, they wei-e in a bleeding condition, and nearly dead. 

 Thinking something injurious had been left in the glass, I selected a lot more larvae 

 and put them in a box. These suffered the same fate as the others, and I could see 

 that it was from their exertions to get between the lid and side of the box. 



The larva of A. Broekeella has not the spotted appearance of that of 

 Gcedartella, also more attenuate, and has the habit, when still, of contracting 

 itself, which gives it a still more swollen appearance about the centre. It is 

 about the colour of the larva of Cossus ligniperda, but rather less bright in ap- 

 pearance, being pinkish-brown on the back, not extending to the 3rd segment, 

 and pale dusky flesh-colour underneath, and in the incisions of the segments. The 

 spiracles are very minute and faintly darker ; immediately above them is a rather 

 large brown spot. The spots are all shining brown, unicolorous ; and are scarcely 

 distinguishable, especially the sub-dorsal ones, unless examined with a pocket lens. 

 Anterior-legs blackish -brown ; head brov/n, lighter towards the front; plate on 



2nd segment blackish-brown on the posterior-edge, and on either side of the very 



Jflfl-' 

 narrow whitish dorsal line, which line is, however, only visible on the 2nd segment. 



On the anal segment there is no indication of a plate, excepting a few shining spots "''^ 



of the ground colour, which is rather more inclined to greenish than the other partf " 



of the larva. The anal segment of the larva projecting from a hole in an alder ''f'* 



catkin would this assimilate with the slightly projecting rugosities of the surface off 



the catkin. When feeding in a catkin, the larva crawls backward to the orifice to I "'^ 



eject its frass, on arriving at the opening the frass is partly extruded from the body ; "'^ 



the anal segment is then raised and protruded slightly from the catkin, and the frass ;' *" 



shot forth like a pellet from a popgun. This I saw done several times, and I par-Psal 



ticularly noticed it, as it resolved what had been a problem in my mind, for I had 



noticed that when a catkin with an almost full-grown larva in it was lying in the 



bottom of the glass with the orifice by which the larva had entered upwards, the 



frass was, nevertheless, about the bottom of the glass. Common sense told me it 



would fall out if the catkin were pendulous on a tree, with the hole dowiiwards, 



but another explanation was needed when the catkin was kept laid so that the 



hole was uppermost, and this explanation the creature supplied in the manner 



described. When the larva is eating into a fresh catkin, with, perhaps, only the 



head or half the body buried, it partially protrudes the frass, then raises about the 



last five segments into the position of the head and front segments of a sphinx larva 



in repose, and the frass is shot away. I have seen it shot as much as a foot fromii*!!]! 



the larva, so that the tiny creature must use considerable projective force. Per a 



The larva no doubt descends to the earth to pupate. Mine have all formed aPJjro 



white silken cocoon with pointed ends beneath the sand, but attached to the side ofPclitlj 



the bottle in which they were placed. The pupa, when it first changes, is delicatei^ectj] 



5t! 



•fitat 

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