THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 123 



irrorations form oblique series on the wing-cases, and also on 

 the cases of antennae and legs. All my specimens, for which 

 I am indebted to Mr. Moncreaff, appeared on the wing on the 

 15th of September. — Edward Newman. 



Life-history of Lithosia caniola. — The moth appears on 

 the wing early in August, and the female lays her eggs on 

 Trifolium repens (Dutch clover), Lotus corniculatus (common 

 bird's-foot trefoil), and other Leguminosaj, on the leaves of 

 which the larva feeds. The young larvae emerge in about ten 

 days, and are then of a pale yellowish colour, seraitrans- 

 parent, and bristling all over with hairs : they feed for about 

 six weeks, changing their skins four or five times before they 

 hybernate, eating very little, growing very slowly, and not 

 attaining a length of more than a third of an inch ; about the 

 middle or end of September they retire towards the roots of 

 the herbage, and, spinning a very slight web, remain con- 

 cealed during the winter; in the spring they reascend the 

 food-plant, feeding principally by night, and in damp weather 

 retreating under stones by day, but when the weather is 

 warm and the sun bright they mount on every exposed stone 

 and bask in its rays. The process of changing the skin 

 again goes on, and really seems the chief occupation of life ; 

 nor can I say that the number of ecdyses is by any means 

 constant ; four or five changes seem to be the allowance for 

 the autumn, and from five to eight for the vernal moulting : 

 at each ecdysis they seem to lose almost all they had pre- 

 viously gained, crawling to the top of their cage consider- 

 ably increased in size, and coming down again most disap- 

 pointingly small ; they seem to grow alternately larger and 

 less. The extremely different account given by the pre- 

 eminently accurate Guenee, in a former number of the 'Zoo- 

 logist' (Zool. 8391), must be cited here, lest it should appear 

 that I ignore the labours of that eminent lepidopterist : — 

 " The larva," says M. Guenee, "lives chiefly, perhaps exclu- 

 sively, on the lichens which grow^ on walls, and especially on 

 the tiles of roofs." Such is not my own experience here. 

 These larvae are full-fed on or about the 15th of June, and 

 then roll in a ring and fall off their food-plant if touched or 

 annoyed : it is stony ground where they principally occur, 

 and a small shell — a species of Planorbis ? — abounds in the 

 same locality, and has almost exactly the appearance, in 



