THK ENTOMOLOGIST. 191 



on each side is another double stripe of a paler colour and 

 somewhat waved ; the spiracles are black, and in their 

 immediate neighbourhood is a second double lateral stripe, 

 less strongly pronounced than those already noticed ; so that 

 there are five double stripes on the dorsal and lateral 

 surface ; the ventral is concolorous with the dorsal area, and 

 there is a narrow raedio-ventral stripe almost white : the 

 food-plant is unknown, but, like the larva? of so many of our 

 geometers, it has fed up on Polygonum aviculare (the com- 

 mon knot-grass), which seems to suit it admirably : my spe- 

 cimens, for which 1 am indebted to Mr. Button, spun slight 

 webs among the stems of their food-plant on the 18th of 

 July, and in these changed to pupoe. — Edward Newman. 



Life-history uf Leucania impura. — The eggs are laid 

 during the month of July, and probably throughout the 

 month, on the leaves and stem of Dactylis glomerata (the 

 cock's-foot grass) ; and the larva, when very young and 

 very small, forms for itself a most convenient domicile, by 

 rolling up lengthwise one of the leaves in the form of a tube, 

 the edges of the leaf being made to overlap, and being 

 fastened into the tube-form with great neatness and exact- 

 ness. When the occupant has outgrown his tenement, he treats 

 it exactly as he would his own skin, wriggles out, abandons 

 it, and weaves another better adapted to his increased dimen- 

 sions. The young larvae reside entirely in these tubes during 

 the hours of daylight, only venturing out and feeding on the 

 grass during the night. On the approach of morning they return 

 to their houses, and do not appear very particular as to the 

 laws o{ meum and tutiin, if we may judge from the fact that 

 one, two or three larvae may occasionally be found in one 

 tube, although it seems reasonable to suppose that each tube 

 was originally constructed by a single larva, and was 

 designed exclusively for his individual convenience, protection 

 and privacy. An exception sometimes occurs to the other- 

 wise uniform practice of using the tube only as a residence, 

 and this exception is no less than eating his own house ; 

 perhaps he sometimes finds the night too bright, too moon- 

 lit, for a nocturnal foraging excursion ; certain it is that 

 occasionally — the exceptions are few and far between — he 

 concludes, after mature deliberation, to devour his own man- 

 j6ion, leaving himself roofless, and by this act of voracity 



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