THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 68.] AUGUST, MDCCCLXIX. [Price 6d. 



Description of the Larva of Dianthoecia capsophila. — 

 There has beei) much dispute as to the specific distinctness 

 of D. capsophila from D. carpophaga, and it has been stoutly 

 maintained by several somewhat eminent entomologists that 

 the former insect is only an Irish form of the English D. car- 

 pophaga. I have always thought that the only way to settle 

 the question was to procure eggs from true genuine Irish 

 capsophila, and to feed up the young larvse in England on 

 seeds of Silene inHata. In the summer of 1867 I happened 

 .to be staying in Dublin, and took the opportunity to make 

 an excursion to Howth, where I collected a number of larvae 

 of D. capsophila on Silene maritima. They turned to pupae 

 before 1 left Ireland. In the summer of 1868 I bred a 

 niimlier of moths, and succeeded in obtaining impregnated 

 eggs. From these the larvae in due time hatched. I am 

 sorry to say that, owing to my having overlooked a small 

 crevice in the box in which they were, all the larvae, with 

 one exception, escaped. This I fed up on seeds of Silene 

 inflata, and in due time it assumed the pupa slate. The per- 

 fect insect emerged two days since : it is a true typical D. 

 capsophila, just like its native Irish brethren, and not at all 

 resembling the darkest variety of D. carpophaga I ever saw. 

 I may observe that here, in Buckinghamshire, all our D. car- 

 pophaga are singularly pale, so that, so far as local colouring 

 causes go, 1 might naturally have expected to breed a very 

 pale insect. I have no doubt in my own mind that D. cap- 

 sophila and D. carpophaga are totally distinct species. I 

 subjoin a description of the larva of the former insect : it 

 very closely resembles the larva of D. carpophaga, but is a 

 stouter insect, and has a peculiar orange tinge which I have 

 not noticed in the caterpillar of the latter species: — Ground 

 colour pale yellowish gray. Back dusky. Central dorsal 

 lines yellowish, bordered with pale brown or olive. Sub^ 



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