1882.] . 181 



On 21 st of August, 1880, a sultry day with hot sun and occasional 

 showers, the Rev. J. Hellins was strolling in advance of his vehicle 

 through a part of the Brunig pass, between Alpnach and Brienz in 

 Switzerland, and was watching the swarms of butterflies on the wing, 

 when he noticed a small grey moth busy over a plant of Euphrasy 

 (Euphrasia officinalis) , which was growing on a bank a little above his 

 head ; some misty recollection of the above-mentioned notice in the 

 Manual made him think of olandiata, and he tried to catch the moth 

 in order to see if it was that species, but failing in this, he came back 

 to the plant about which it had been flying, and pulling several shoots 

 of it found that he had secured about a dozen of the eggs that had 

 just been deposited underneath the leaves amongst the open flowers, 

 and these, unfortunately supplemented by some fresh shoots gathered 

 early next morning, and so damp with dew, he posted in a tin box to 

 me on the 22nd, and I received it in the afternoon of the 23rd. 



On opening the box I found most of the Euphrasy already 

 decayed, for it is one of the plants that fade rapidly from damp, 

 and though I could see several empty egg shells, there were only 

 four or five tiny larvae still living, but there was also one bigger 

 and finer than the rest, just emerging from a round hole in a seed 

 vessel, where it had evidently fed on the unripe contents ; a few eggs 

 had remained unhatched, and from these one larva appeared next day, 

 and two more the day following, when I also found another larva of 

 an earlier batch that had already moulted once if not twice. 



The young larvae soon ate their way into the seed capsules and 

 therein must have moulted, for though their small entrance hole was 

 detected in the upper part of some capsules, they themselves could be 

 seen but seldom for some time until they had acquired a certain 

 amount of growth, and until the necessity for more food compelled 

 them occasionally to come outside and attack fresh capsules, when 

 they could be better observed ; especially was this the case after their 

 last moult, when (like the larva of J2. unifasciata, Ent. Mo. Mag., vi, 

 p. 186) they assumed a handsome dress admirably designed in harmony 

 of aspect with the food- plant for their protection, whilst living for the 

 remainder of their larval existence more or less exposed ; for often 

 they remained with their heads buried in the seed capsules and the 

 greater portion of their bodies resting outside, and motionless for 

 hours during the daylight ; but the succession of brilliant little flowers 

 given forth by the plants seemed quite to divert the eye from the 

 larvae, and, moreover, their assimilation to the stems and leaves was so 

 perfect, that even when one knew they were present on a shoot, it was 

 with difficulty they could be detected. 



