log " ) [January, 
Descryption of the larva of Agmtis lunigera. — Some years ago Mr. W. Farren 
obtained a few eggs from a pinned 9 of this species which were laid on the cork 
of his collecting box, and he cut them out, and kindly sent them to me ; but, as 
they hatched in transit, I failed in attempting to rear them. 
It is now with the greatest satisfaction that I am enabled to describe this larva, 
thanks to the persevering exertions of Mr. Thomas Terry in rearing a few eggs, 
obtained in a similar way, from a ? that had previously been poisoned and pinned. 
The young larvae when first hatched, and until after their third moult, were 
supplied with grasses, dock, dandehon, and other food ; but they fed only on the 
dandelion, and preferred the withered leaves, perforating them with small round 
holes. At the time they came into my possession, I supplied them with 
Polygonum %vic,ulare, which they attacked ravenously, and would never after eat 
dandelion. Their growth and condition became so satisfactory, that I have no 
doubt this is one of their natural food-plants. 
They were sent to me on the 21st of last August, being then three lines long, 
and in six days were half-an-inch, and by the 8th of September one inch in length, 
and thick in proportion : they evinced great aversion to light, and a desire for 
burrowing. 
When half-an-inch long, they were pale ochreous or flesh colour on the back, 
the sides greyish-green, their bellies of the same tint, but paler, and on the back of 
each segment a V-'il^^ mark of brown, inverted, with the apex in front, through 
which passed the .pale buff dorsal line, most conspicuous through the black plate 
on the second segment. On the two sides of the inverted V mark were placed the 
usual four tubercular warts, black and large in proportion, and very conspicuous. 
When they had attained an inch in length the inverted V marks had dis- 
appeared, and the larvse had become much darker ; the central part of the back on 
each segment mottled with dark brown, in the form of a diamond with the points cut 
off ; the spaces next the sub-dorsal line buff colour, and wedge shaped. 
The dorsal line conspicuously sulphur-yellow on the black shining plate of the 
second segment only, while on all the other segments scarcely noticeable, and 
chiefly at the commencement of each, as rather paler brown than the mottled 
portions it runs through. 
The anal segment buff colour, forming a conspicuous pale mark above the flap. 
The sides blackish-green, bounded above by the sub-dorsal line of rather 
darker hue, and below by the black spiracles and usual warty tubei-cles ; the sub- 
dorsal line is edged below by a fine thread of dirty whitish-green, and another such 
fine line, but undulating and interrupted, runs between it and the spiracles. Above 
the legs is a pale, thin, dirty whitish line ; the belly and legs slightly darker, of a 
greenish-drab tint ; the ventral legs more beneath the body than usual ; all the 
tubercular warts blackish, large, and shining. The head mottled-brownish, with a 
large black blotch on each side of the crown. 
When the larvas were an inch and a quarter long, and even a trifle longer, 
their details of markings and colom-s were just the same, but more intense and bright, 
the larva were then in their best coats, and very thick and plump. Soon after, about 
the middle of September, on attaining their maximum length, an inch and a half when 
stretched out, their colours and markings began gradually to fade away into a 
