NOTES ON NEW AND RARE SPECIES. 139 



it till the moths appeared ; and luckily this summer, about 

 the middle of July, Mr. Farren bred one moth, and satis- 

 factorily proved the correctness of his guess as to its species. 

 The rest of the pupae from the larvag taken by Mr. Fryer in 

 1862 are partly, I fear, dead — partly, I hope, remaining 

 over till 1864. However, this year he has again found it in 

 his garden, and most kindly sent Mr. Buckler and myself a 

 good supply, from individuals of which figures and descrip- 

 tions have been taken. ^' 



" Mr. Fryer tells me that the moths are plentiful in his 

 garden during the first half of the month of July, and he 

 finds that they lay their eggs (of a pellucid violet tint, 

 changing to orange afterwards) in little bunches of four or 

 five together, on the seed-vessels of ThalictTum aquilegifo- 

 lium, and more rarely of T. flavum; the larvas, orange- 

 coloured when they first appear, are hatched about the 

 beginning of August, and have a habit of biting half through 

 the stalks of their food plant, and feeding on the leaves, 

 which they have thus caused to become partly withered. 

 They feed through the month of August, some of them being 

 found far into September; and, although they are not strictly 

 gregarious, may be found on one plant to the number of a 

 dozen or more, their presence being easily detected from their 

 habit of feeding mentioned above. I believe it is not yet 

 known what wild plant they feed on in their haunts in the 

 fens, but I found that they would eat the old dry-looking 

 leaves of Aquilegia vulgaris or columbine, though they 

 would not touch the vouno^ and slender ones," 



