142 LEriDOPTERA. 



side tlie hole, and there was a number of cocoons inside as 

 well. A cluster of cocoons the size of a cricket-ball is not 

 very large, taking into consideration the size of the nest. 

 The comb of Bomhus tcrrcdria is often seven or eight inches 

 in diameter ; it would almost supply food for a mass as large 

 as a football ! I have had a good deal of trouble in my 

 humble-bees' nests with this moth. In 1893 it got access to 

 some nests which I kept for observation in the walls of an 

 outhouse, and as I failed to destroy all the cocoons in the 

 winter, an enormous brood was produced in the following 

 year, destroying all the nests I had there." 



The liev. C. R. Digby found larviB spun up under willow 

 bark, and others under a board in a stone-flagged yard, and 

 reared the present species from both. The Rev. H. Williams, 

 of Croxton, found larvas in a wasjj's nest, feeding on the 

 papery walls of the nest, and not on the comb. 



Pupa thin skinned and soft, wing and limb cases very dull 

 with minute sculpture, pale brown ; segmental divisions also 

 without gloss, rather darker brown, the hind margin of each 

 segment somewhat raised, pale chestnut ; cremasterof thesame 

 colour, broad at the base, tapering off to a long blunt point. 

 In a tough, stringy, dull brown cocoon closely attached to 

 others, and all laid side by side, so as to form a tough ball, 

 or cluster of cocoons, to the number of several hundreds. 

 Mr. W. P. Blackburn-Maze sent me such a cluster, which 

 had been found close to a group of no less than six wasps' 

 nests in a garden, and from which at least two hundred and 

 sixty-five moths had been reared. The winter is passed as 

 shown above in cocoon, in the larva state. 



The moth hides itself during the day in the thickest herb- 

 age, often close to the ground, and is not easily disturbed at 

 that time. At late dusk it becomes active and flies freely about 

 lanes, banks, fields, and wherever the humble-bees and wasps 

 build their nests. Later at night it will come to a strong 

 light. Thoutih, from its retiring habits, not usuallv seen in 



