274 [May; 



burrows aud spun pads on which to moult. By June 24th some oV 

 them had changed their skins, and the leaves of the reeds had beer 

 eaten at their edges, like some that we had noticed in the fen. T(! 

 prove that the larvae are really external feeders when mostly full 

 grown, I secured a newly-moulted larva on June 28th, and kept i 

 without food for twenty-four hours. When food was given it, r 

 began by eating a burrow as long as itself in the stem of a reed, i 

 then came out and fed only on the leaves until it pupated, alwayi 

 resting on the outside of a reed or in some old hollow stems given r 

 for the purpose. This, I think, is the usual mode of life, for on Jul] j 

 5th, I looked through the cage containing the rest of the larvae, eigh j 

 of them being then alive, and found a few empty burrows about th« j 

 length of a larva and the leaves much eaten at the edges. j 



On June 28th, I described a nearly full-grown larva. "With thf ». 

 change from internal to external feeding it had become quite hand^i* 

 Bome. In markings and colour it greatly resembled the larvae oi ' 

 Neuronia popularis or cespitis, but was not nearly so stout. 



Length, about If inch, of average thickness in proportion ; head light brown' 

 with slightly darker markings near the top of the lobes and about the mouth ; bodv 

 pale ochreous, almost obscured by thick reticulation of olive-brown ; dorsal, sub ^ 

 dorsal, and spiracular lines broad pale yellow, the last being the palest, with centra 

 stripes of orange, all the lines show on the second segment, the dorsal and sub-dorsa 

 reach almost to the posterior edge of the anal flap, and the spiracular to the posterio: 

 claspers ; spiracles black ; legs pale brown ; pro-legs concolorous with the pal( 

 ventral area. 



Pupa about f inch long, of usual Noctua shape, i. e., not long and thin as those* 

 of Nonagria geminipuncta ; dull red ; eyes, antennee, legs, and wings rather faintljl; 

 defined; anal segment ending in two stout bristles, -2^0 inch long, remote at theiri' 

 bases, approaching each other near the middle of their length, and bent outwards ala, 

 the ends to form hooks ; around them were three or four shorter and thinner bristles 's| 

 curled at their points. The object of these bristles being, I suppose, to anchor theiij 

 pupa-skin firmly to the cocoon during the escape of the moth. 



The cocoons were formed on the surface of the soil, rather slightly, of silk, and 

 a few pieces of cocoa-nut fibre and moss interwoven with it. 



The moths, four in number, emerged during the last week in July. 



Fairlawn, Worthing : 



April lOa, 1886. 



THE HABITS OF THE IMAGO OF NONAGRIA BRm^ILINHA. 



\ 

 BY r. D. WHEELER, M.A., E.E.S. | 



My friend Mr. Fletcher, to whose zeal and skill we are no\v( 

 indebted for a knowledge of the larva of this local species, has, with 

 characteristic modesty, requested me to supplement his life-history oi 

 the species with some account of the habits of the perfect insect. 



