1867.J JJ5 



Discovery a?id description of the larva of Lithostegeniveata. — For om- knowledge 

 of the early stages of this species we have to thank Mr. T. Brown, of Cambridge, 

 who has found the larvaj feeding on Sisymhrium sophia, in the locality where lie 

 liad been accustomed to take the moth. 



The larvae, however, which I have had this summer, whether bred or captured, 

 throve equally well on Erysimum cheiranthoides, seeds of which had been sent me 

 in mistake for those of 8. sopMa. 



Mr. Brown sent me eggs on June 18th and 25th, and the larvae appeared soon 

 after, and fed up in about a mouth, all of them having gone to earth by August 1st. 



On August 3rd, Mr. Brown sent me some larvae which he had just captured 

 in their locality, and some of these continued feeding for nearly a fortnight longer. 



The larva, when full-gro\vn, is nearly an inch long, rather slender, flattened 

 beneath, of uniform bulk throughout ; the head full lax-ge, and rounded. 



The colour is very variable ; the larvae reared on Erysimum cheiranthoides were 

 mostly paler than the captured ones sent me by Mr. Brown, and as these did not 

 vary much among themselves, we have taken their colouring and markings to form 

 Var. 1. Ground-colour dull olive-green all over, except the spiracular region, which 

 is pale yellow ; very fine dorsal line of darker tint of the ground-colour, sometimes 

 there is a similar line on either side of it, and sometimes again these appear only 

 as a pair of olive-brown or purplish wedge-shaped dashes just before each seg- 

 mental fold : sub-dorsal line greenish-grey with darker edgings ; the spiracles 

 black, and just above and beliind them, in the yellow spiracular stripe, are suffused 

 blotches of the colour of the dorsal wedges. 



Var. 2. Ground-colour of a fresher, more yellowish-green, dorsal region full 

 green ; spiracular region yellowish, and the blotches in it of a darker purplish tint 

 than in No. 1, and more clearly defined. 



Var. 3. Gi"Ound-colour greenish-white ; thi-ee very fine purplish-brown or 

 blackish lines down the back, of which the central one becomes wider and darker 

 just before each segmental fold, and the other two across the fold ; sometimes these 

 lines are interrupted, appearing only in the thickened parts ; sometimes again they 

 are all united by a transverse band just before the segmental fold : the sub-dorsal line 

 paler than the ground, but edged below with the dark colour ; the spiracular region 

 not differing from the rest of the ground-colour, with its wedge-shaped blotches, 

 not only above the spiracles, but also with similar ones below them ; in some speci- 

 mens the spiracular stripe being itself interriipted by these pairs of upper and 

 under blotches becoming partially united ; the anal flap and the anal pair of legs 

 dark blackish-green, or purplish-brown. 



This last variety caught the eye, when upon its food, readily enough, but the 

 other two were hard to distinguish from the seed -pods of the mustard -plants. — 

 J.'Hellins, Exeter, September 16f /i, 1867. 



Note on the larva of Agrophila sulphuralis. — Hiibner's figures of this species 

 leave me little that is new to say about it; still I feel much indebted to Mr. 

 Brown for enabling me to rear a larva which Mr. Buckler has figured. 



Unluckily — although the moth had laid several eggs — they all perished in the 

 Post-office save one, and the single lai-va did not live to become a pupa, having 

 been hatched on Juno 25th, and dying on August 15th. 



