THE LARVA STAGE OF ANCYLIS SICULANA. 63 
handful of leaves from the garden. They are drier than usual 
and the temperature much lower. The leaves afforded one 
imago of H. briggst, but none at earlier stages. Young spiders, 
Collembola, Apions, and other small cattle were abundant in 
them. 
Betula, Reigate, February Ist, 1916. 
THE LARVA STAGE OF ANCYLIS SICULANA. 
By W. G. SuHetpon, F.E.S. 
Accorpine to Barrett the larva of this species has been 
briefly described by Treitschke. 
Imagines of the first brood were not infrequent in Wicken 
Fen from June 17th to 24th lats, frequenting the vicinity of 
bushes of Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula), and at the same 
date a larva feeding upon the leaves of this shrub, which 
eventually turned out to be that of A. siculana, was abundant. 
The larva in the last instar adopts various methods of 
- forming a habitation ; sometimes it will turn down a portion of 
a leaf and form with it a neat pocket similar to those made by 
other members of the genus; at other times it will spin two 
leaves together and feed between them; or again, it will spin 
the whole of the terminal leaves of a shoot together and live 
therein. It eats only one cuticle of the leaf, usually the lower 
one, but not invariably so, and leaves the membrane between 
the upper and lower cuticles intact; the leaves that were 
affected by the larva have thus the appearance of being 
blotched. , 
The imagos resulting from these larve emerged during the 
last half of July and the first half of August. 
The following is ashort description of the larva in the last 
instar : 
Length 10 mm., very active, when placed’ upon a sheet of paper 
if touched it wriggles frantically backwards and crawls rapidly; the 
colour of all the segments except the first and second is greenish 
brown ; the head and second segment are amber coloured, the latter 
having a number of black blotches and spots, chiefly on the posterior 
margin; the internal canal is seen distinctly as a dark line 
along the centre of the dorsal area; all the segments except the 
first, second, and last, are studded with tubercles of a somewhat 
lighter colour than the segment itself; these tubercles are arranged 
in transverse rows of four, the third and fourth segments have each 
one of these rows, the others have two rows; the anal segment has 
black blotches similar to those on the second. When full fed the 
larva (in confinement) spins a silken cocoon between the leaves of 
its food plant and changes therein to a chrysalis. 
