TRIFID.^. 125 



size and cast their skins. The largest would, nevertheless, 

 not assume the pupa state, and at our departure on the 15th 

 August they were no larger than when we found them. 

 When these larvae ate for themselves ways and cavities in 

 the moss, we at first thought that they fed on moss, but 

 here we were mistaken, for their proper food consisted of 

 the lower portions of the stems of grasses or the roots. 

 They love when young to feed on the part of the stem 

 which is just above the root, but they ate down into the 

 root itself, and appeared only exceptionally to feed on the 

 leaves." 



" We had found in the latter half of July a number of 

 worn females which laid eggs. They were put into a large 

 airy case with flowers and grass therein, but we could not 

 find any eggs. On July 25th, we saw during the hottest 

 mid-day sunshine, a female sitting on the lower part of a 

 stem of Poa alpina. Kalisch wished to take it off, but to 

 our amazement it sat fast on the stem. The last segments of 

 the body were moving about in a nearly perpendicular 

 position and the ovipositer almost bored into the stem. By 

 further observation we found several holes made by it into 

 the narrow leaf-sheaths of the stem, between which and the 

 stem were laid about one hundred eggs. I now examined 

 the stems placed with the imprisoned moths and found a 

 quantity of eggs deposited in a very similar manner. After 

 two or three weeks the young larvae appeared. About the 

 middle of September we took out these caterpillars, at that 

 time they were all 5 to 8 mills, in length (i to J inch). 

 At the end of November I again examined them, and found, 

 to my great astonishment, that about five were already 

 nearly as large as the largest specimens found in Iceland ; 

 about nine were half grown, and some were scarcely larger 

 than they were in September. These facts taken in con- 

 nection with those observed in Iceland are sufficient proofs 

 that aru/is sometimes passes one, two, or even three winters 

 in the larva state." 



