278 LEPIDOPTERA. 



face of the eleventh and twelfth segments is a transverse 

 patch of white. Very sluggish. (Buckler.) 



The Rev. J. Hellins succeeded in obtaining eggs, on several 

 occasions, which hatched, and the very young larvae spun little 

 ropes of silk across blades of grass, and made little web 

 coverings for themselves, but would not feed and soon died. 

 He described them " slender, cylindrical, the head longer 

 than the second segment, but scarcely wider, skin smooth, no 

 bristles except on the second and thirteenth segments, and 

 some very short ones on the head ; colour pale dull yellow, 

 with a faint dorsal vessel ; head dull jiale brown ; and a faint 

 brownish crescent-shaped collar on the second segment." 



On Holcus hinatus, BracItT/jyodium sylvaticuvi and other soft 

 gi'asses from August to June. As far as is known feeding 

 but little before hybernation. When well grown in the 

 spring prefers a position low down on the grass, and chooses 

 a blade of precisely its own colour. Its full history is still 

 however but partially known. Mr. Hellins states distinctly 

 that of eggs obtained by Dr. Knaggs in July 1865, the larvae 

 hatched on August 12th, and from those obtained by himself 

 from the butterflies in July 1866, the lai-vEe began to appear 

 on August 15th, yet Mr. F. W. Hawes has secured eggs from 

 the butterflies in July and August, which have remained 

 through the winter in that state, hatching about April 20th. 

 This species thus appears to hybernate partly in the egg and 

 partly in the larva state. 



Pupa ; head bluntly pointed, eyes and wing cases jiromi- 

 nent, tongue case detached; thorax rather arched, thence taper- 

 ing to the tail. Pale green with faintly paler lines down the 

 back, wing cases darker, tongue case brownish. Enclosed in a 

 chamber formed of two or sometimes three leaves of the 

 grass upon which the larva has fed, joined together longitu- 

 dinally with white silk, with which also the chamber is lined, 

 so as to form a loose cocoon. The pupa is nevertheless held 

 in position, head upward, by an oblique cincture behind the 



