il886.] 273 



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■ffiosi 



lentral shoot. I did not see this larva again until May 17th, when 

 ;he old food-plant was broken up and re-placed by fresh. It was then 

 ibout to moult. 



The following description was taken :— Bather slender ; length about y\ inch ; 

 lead, corselet, and anal plate brown ; body very light brown, almost white between 

 .he segments, spots rather large, black, surrounded by pale rings, with rather long 

 )lack bristles ; dorsal and sub-dorsal lines white. 



On May 20th, it was found to have moulted, most likely soon after the above 



lescription was taken. It was now nearly i inch long, and fairly stout, head, corse- 



et, and anal plate very pale brown, body pale yellowish-green ; dorsal, sub-dorsal, 



md spiracular lines white, spots small, with very short black bristles. When placed 



a reed, it took up its position on the upper-side of the base of a leaf which was 



l]< iijust unfolding itself from the stem. Here the larva remained for some days, during 

 ^hich it nearly bit off this leaf, and gnawed the still unfolded one above it con- 

 liderably. 



I described it on June 8th, as follows -.—Nearly ^ inch long ; cylindrical, not 

 papering much at either end ; head and plates pale brown, the former rather darker 



'"""^ It the top of the lobes ; the lines broad, white, edged with brown, darker than that 

 jf the general surface of the body ; spiracles black ; legs and claspers almost colour- 

 less. Having started from its former position at the base of the leaf-blade, the larva 

 iad gnawed a spiral tunnel in the reed-stem, making two turns in f of an inch, 

 phe " frass " was all thrown out. I took it out of the old reed on June 17th, and 

 by the next day it had bored its full length into a fresh one, having made its entry 

 is before. On June 19th it came out of its burrow and spun a silken pad on the 

 Oiuslin at the top of the lamp-chimney, on which to undergo its last larval moult. 



liot Unluckily, it lost its hold and died at the bottom of its prison. 



On June 20th, Mr. Wheeler most kindly went with me to Ean- 

 worth Yen to hunt for the larvae in their own home. It was a cold, 

 showery day, and for the best part of the afternoon our search was in 

 pin. At last, in a small alder carr, we were rewarded by finding 

 some sixteen or seventeen larvae, all of which Mr. "Wheeler most 

 generously insisted on my taking home with me. These larvae fed 

 just like my lamented friend. They entered at the tops of the reeds, 

 bored down two of the joints and made holes as they went, through 



bill which to eject their frass. All the larvae but two were head down- 



lanlwards. The forwardest were of the same age as the one I had reared 

 from the egg. The work of the larvae was shown by the reeds being 

 withered at the top ; not always their presence, however, for we found 

 many empty mines, and many full of frass and tenanted by the larvae 

 of CaJamia phragmitidis, those made by the larvae of N. hrevilinea being 

 always clean. 



On June 21st, I returned home and placed the larvae with reeds 

 in lamp-chimneys and tins. Some of them at once came out of their 



