THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 10.] JANUARY, MDCCCLXV. [Price 6d. 



Life-history of Bomhy.v CalluncB. — The male flies ra- 

 pidly over the heather by day at the latter end of May or 

 bej^inning of June ; its flight is jerking or zigzag, and its 

 object evidently to find the female, who rarely moves until 

 impregnation has taken place ; the sexes remain in cop, 

 about three hours, and, about two hours after the union has 

 ceased, the female takes wing, and flies over the heather 

 with an oscillating, pendulum-like motion, dropping her eggs 

 at random as she flies, and the eggs, having no glutinous 

 covering, do not adhere to any object which they may acci- 

 dentally touch in falling : the act of oviposition lasts from 

 half an hour to three-quarters, and when it is completed the 

 exhausted and emptied female hides herself amongst the her- 

 bage, and rarely survives the day. The young larvae emerge 

 on the surface of the earth, or on any object that may have 

 arrested the fall of the egg, and crawl up the stalks and twigs 

 of Calluna vulgaris (common ling), their only natural food- 

 plant, although in confinement they will eat freely the leaves 

 of Betula alba and B. glutinosa (birch). On emergence, 

 which usually takes place during the second, or at latest the 

 third, week in July, the young larva is dark ash-coloured, 

 the incisions of the segments being indicated by two minute 

 orange streaks, each of which is accompanied by a small 

 black spot : after the first moult the ground colour becomes 

 more smoky, the incisions velvety black, and on each seg- 

 ment a triangular orange spot makes its appearance : subse- 

 quently these markings become more conspicuous, and at 

 the end of October, when it hybernates for the winter, they 

 are very distinct: it now rests in a straight position, and, if 

 disturbed, falls off" its food-plant, and rolls in a ring, with its 

 head slightly on one side. Head prone, scarcely so wide as 

 the body, clothed with soft hairs ; body uniformly cylin- 

 drical, except that it has on each side of the 2nd segment a 

 small excrescence or wart close to the head ; these warts are 



VOL. II. . K 



