TRIFIDM. 137 



Larva. — Head small, narrower than the second segment, 

 porrected, glossy pale brown delicately reticulated with 

 darker brown, and having six darker lines ; body cylindrical 

 but tapering slightly to each extremity; colour ochreous- 

 grey; dorsal stripe brown intersected throughout by a 

 thread-like white line ; on each side are two compound 

 stripes paler than the ground colour, one above and one 

 below the spiracles, both broad, yellowish-grey, intersected 

 throughout by a median red portion which seems to have no 

 accurate boundaries ; spiracles oval, reddish, edged with 

 black ; usual raised dots black ; undersurface paler than the 

 upper, and faintly tinged with green ; legs reddish ; prolegs 

 of the colour of the ventral area, each having two black spots 

 and a small cloud on the outside. 



When young and before hybernation uniformly cylindrical, 

 slightly hairy, and of a bright straw colour, with two brown 

 dorsal stripes. (Condensed from a very full account by Mr. 

 E. Newman.) Mr. Buckler's figures show considerable 

 variation, a subdorsal ochreous stripe, edged with grey or 

 with white, and a white line above the spiracles ; the stripes 

 also differ in breadth, and one larva exhibits a double row of 

 black spots conspicuously down the dorsal stripe. 



August to May on DactyJis (jlomcrata and other grasses, 

 also Luzvla ■pilosa. Mr. Newman's account is interesting : 

 "When very young and very small it forms for itself a most 

 convenient domicile by rolling up lengthwise one of the 

 grass-leaves in the form of a tube, the edges of the leaf being 

 made to overlap and fastened into the tube-form with great 

 neatness and exactness. When it has outgrown its tene- 

 ment it wriggles out, abandons it and weaves another. It 

 only resides in it during the hours of daylight, venturing 

 out and feeding on the grass during the night, and on the 

 approach of morning returning to its home. Occasionally a 

 mistake aj^pears to be made, since two or three larva? may 

 sometimes be found in one tube. Also it occasionally, though 

 rarely, devours its own tube, and thus brings on itself the 



