60 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



white, the head brown, and that each segment had a brown 

 horny shield ; the segmental divisions were white, and the 

 shields gradually encroached upon the belly of the larva, 

 segment by segment, so that at last the penultimate and anal 

 segments became quite encircled by the brown horny plates ; 

 the belly, or such part of it as remained uncovered, was 

 white J the back of the penultimate segment being covered 

 with a pair of curved pointed horns directed backwards over 

 the anal segment; the body was plentifully sprinkled with 

 reddish brown hairs; the thoracic legs were brown, darker at 

 their upper articulations ; the horn-like projections I noticed 

 were darker at their base than they were at their anterior ex- 

 tremity. These larvae shed their skins several times, but I 

 am not in possession of the exact number of moults : at each 

 moult I observed that, in order to escape from its old skin, the 

 larva split the latter down the dorsal surface of the first four 

 segments, and that in withdrawing its anal prolegs it left a 

 little circular hole at the end of its thrown-off skin : I was 

 interested in observing the manner in which they fed, pierc- 

 ing their food through and through, and tunnelling it in all 

 directions. As they appeared perfectly content, and throve 

 remarkably well, I offered them no other kind of food : they 

 were exceedingly greedy, and would actually gnaw their way 

 through a hard, stale piece of bread, their operations in that 

 line completely surpassing the larvae of Ephestia elutella. 

 Although so greedy I observed no evidence of a cannibalistic 

 tendency ; it is true they might have fallen foul of and 

 devoured one another whilst in their burrows, and I been none 

 the wiser, in consequence of my not having ascertained their 

 exact number. They fed on for several weeks, and would at 

 the end of that time, had I permitted it, have assumed the 

 pupal form within their tubular abodes. 



VVhen full fed the larvae gradually became very sluggish, 

 appearing at first as though in a sleepy, and afterwards a 

 semi-torpid state, and when roused up rolled and tumbled 

 about in a curious manner, having apparently almost lost the 

 control of their actions; at last they became quite torpid, and 

 on the lapse of a suitable interval passed into whitish-coloured 

 pupae, the two anterior pair of legs of which were folded over 

 the breast, and the tarsi hung in a drooping posture down the 

 centre of the little creature's breast, the posterior pair of legs 



