NEW PLUME -MOTH. 23 



a species of " Plume Moth," which was quite new to me. Numerous 

 specimens were taken at sunset on the edge of a boggy piece of 

 swamp, and from its habitat and from the appearance of the moth 

 1 suspected at the time that it might prove to be a Drosera 

 feeder, in the same way as had been recently proved to occur in 

 the case of Trichoptilus palvdum in Europe. (Note. — " Obser- 

 vations on the Life- History of Trichoptilus pallidum,'' by 

 Dr. T. A. Chapman; Trans. Entom. Soc. Lond., 1906, p. 133.) 

 At that time, however, I was unable to find any Drosera plants in 

 the vicinity. 



In the following year on my arrival at Diyatalawa I determined to 

 devote my first energies to a search for the larva of this species, and 

 at last, on the 31st July, 1907, in a marshy place which had been 

 cleared at some former time and had not been grown over to any 

 great extent by the ordinary rank paludicolous vegetation, I came 

 across numerous plants of Drosera burmanni, Vahl. T. paludicola 

 was quite common here, so it seemed a likely place to look for the 

 larva, which was soon revealed by a close search. 



It is unnecessary to refer here to the great interest which was 

 excited so recently by the original discovery that Drosera is the 

 food plant of T. paludum. As is well known, Drosera is an insecti- 

 vorous plant, deriving almost the whole of its nourishment from the 

 insects which it captures and digests, and there was therefore the 

 less reason to suspect it to be the pabulum of a caterpillar which has 

 apparently no means to protect it from being devoured. Dr. Chap- 

 man and Mr. Bankes have, however, already shown the fallacy of this 

 reasoning, and in the present instance I have found that Drosera 

 burmanni is eaten with impunity by the larvae of T. paludicola and 

 of a Noctuid Moth, whilst the flower stems are attacked by a species 

 of Aphid. 



The Drosera plants themselves average about 25 mm. in expanse. 

 In appearance the colour varies from light pink to bright red 

 (occasionally pale green, usually in very shady places) ; in reality the 

 leaves and stems themselvesarea very palegreenlooking almost white 

 from the minute silvery glands covering the surface ; the apparent 

 red or pink colour is given by the long red or pink glandular petioles 

 which cover the upper surface of the leaves ; those situated along 

 the external margin of the leaves appear to be clavate at the end, 

 but the other petioles exude a drop of clear gummy matter which 

 forms a round drop at the tip of the petiole, and these gummy drops, 

 as they glisten in the sun, give the plant its rather appropriate 

 popular name of " Sunde^^^" The flowers, which are of a pale pink 

 colour, are borne on a long stem (not gummy), which rises from 

 alongside the centre of the plant and attains a height of 8 or 9 

 inches. The roots are very small and barely serve to take a grip of 

 the ground, but the plants seem to obtain a liberal supply of insect 



