46 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and margined on each side with black, which shades off ex- 

 ternally into the pale brown ground colour ; this black, how- 

 ever, consists of innumerable minute specks, which are 

 crowded when in close proximity to the pale medio-dorsal 

 stripe, but become scattered as they i-ecede from it : just 

 above the spiracles is a rather broad lateral stripe, somewhat 

 darker than the ground colour, with a dark but ill-defined 

 upper margin and a unicolorous and clearly defined lower 

 margin : exactly intermediate between the medio-dorsal stripe 

 and this lateral stripe is a parti-coloured stripe scarcely so 

 wide as the latter; it is divided longitudinally into two equal 

 parts, the upper part very dark brown, almost black, and- 

 somewhat interrupted at the interstices of the segments, thus 

 forming a series of eleven elongate blotches, the lower part 

 pale and throwing the series of blotches into bold relief; 

 three pale stripes are also to be traced on the 2nd segment : 

 the legs, claspers and belly are pale, and have a semitraus- 

 parent appearance. It enters the ground in May to undergo 

 its change to a glabrous brown pupa : the moth emerges in 

 August, and is sometimes a perfect nuisance to the collector 

 who adopts the sugaring mode of capture. Guenee observes 

 that a great number of individuals die in the pupa state, 

 a conclusion at which he arrives from the fact that in France 

 the larvre are much more abundant than the moth ; Mr. 

 Doubleday informs me he thinks this is also the case in 

 England. I am indebted to Mr. Wright for the caterpillar. — 

 Edicard Newman. 



Dejscrlption of the Larva of AncJto'^celis pistacina. — The. 

 eggs are laid in the autumn, on the herbage in meadows after 

 the hay-crop has been harvested, more especially on the 

 floweiing-stems of various species of Ranunculus (butter-cup), 

 on the leaves of which the larva feeds. The larvae, as mentioned 

 by Mr. Crewe (Zool. 6384), do not emerge until the spring, when 

 they ascend the stalks of the food-plants, which are probably 

 very various, including many Graminea3. The larva is full-fed 

 at the end of May and beginning of June, and then may be 

 readily obtained by sweeping sta.nding grass morning and even- 

 ing, but not so abundantly in the middle of the day. When dis- 

 turbed it forms itself into a ring, and rolls to the bottom of the 

 sweeping-net ; but on being removed from the debris there 

 collected, a strangely heterogeneous mass, it soon finds the 



