18(50. J ' 45 
inteiTuptetl, darkest near the heail, afterwards showing pale grey edged with dusky ; 
sub-dorsal line dark brown, commencing very distinctly on the head. On each 
segment from five to nine there are two obtuse dark Vs> o^^e pointing forward, the 
other backwards (their arms reaching nearly to the sub-dorsal line, and terminating 
in the usual 4 dots), and between them enclosing a blunt diamond of the ground 
colour, through the centre of which the dark-edged dorsal line shows distinctly. 
The posterior segments are marked only with the dorsal and sub-dorsal Hnes, and 
the usual 4 dots in each, here showing more distinctly as being not confounded 
vnth the other markings. The spiracular stripe pale ochreous, freckled and edged 
below with dusky ; the belly pale grey, freckled and mottled in the same way. 
Certainly mint seems to have suited the growth of these larvse better than 
thyme, but I perceive that after they have once tasted the latter they will not leave 
it for another food.— J. IIellins, February 7th, 1866. 
[N.B. — I always find .4. ornata amongst wild marjoram, not thyme. — H. G.K.] 
Eupithecia lariciata near York.~l had the good fortune to capture a long 
series of the above insect, in very fine condition, in a small lai'ch plantation near 
York. The first was taken on May 20th. I found them as good at the end of a 
fortnight as at first, which, with the fact of their being difficult to dislodge from 
the trees, and that when beaten out they generally drop and remain on the ground, 
would suggest that the imago is sluggish, or does not fly much, which may account 
for its comparatively recent discovery as a British species. I obtained a small 
batch of ova from one female by placing her in a tube containing a sprig of larch. 
I had tried several others in gauze-covered boxes, but they would not deposit eggs. — 
T. J. Carkington, Fulford, York, Qth June, 1866. 
Larva; of Xanthia gilvago at Derby. — I was fortunate enough this morning to 
beat the larvae of X.gilvagoiu some numbers off wych-elm, in this neighbourhood. — 
Geo. Baker, 47, Kedleston Street, Derby, June 7th, 1866. 
Eupithecia plumbeolata and Eitp. valerianata bred. — On the 12th of this month 
I bred E. plumbeolata from larva3 taken last season off the Melampyrum pratense ; 
also at the same time E. valerianata from larvae taken on Valeriana officinalis last 
july._lD., Jmie IS, 1866. 
Economy of Gelechia cerealella. — " A grain of wlieat or of barley contains the 
precise quantity of food necessary to nourish the larva from its birth till it is full 
fed. If we open a grain which contains a larva just ready to change, we find it is 
nothing but a husk ; the entire farinaceous substance has been devoured. In the 
cavity then occupied by the larva, which is the most spacious apartment it has had 
in its life, we find some brown or yellowish particles, which are its excrements. If 
we open a grain inhabited by a younger and smaller larva, we find that there is more 
or less of the substance of the grain still to bo consumed, according to the size of 
the larva. But what is remarkable is, that in the latter case we find at least as 
much, and probably more excrement, and in large pellets, than we find in a grain 
tenanted by an older larva. If we bear in mind that the grain has no perceptible 
opening— no place by which the larva could extrude its excrement, we may conclude 
that at first it feeds with little economy, and that afterwards it is driven to eat 
