THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 225 



ceasing and remaining in a quiescent state only during se- 

 vere frost: when full-fed it gnaws its way upwards, and just 

 above the surface of the earth it erodes the reed-sleiu, in a 

 circular form, sufficiently large to admit of the escape of the 

 moth, bat invariably leaving a thin epidermal layer of cuticle, 

 just sufficient to prevent the influx of water in flood-time, but 

 offering very slight resistance to the moth when, having ac- 

 complished its final change in August, it is prepared to enter 

 on its new career. The larva is full-fed about Midsummer : 

 head exserted, porrected in crawling, nearly equal in width 

 to the 2nd segment, semiglobose, prominent and glabrous : 

 body very long, maggot-like, flabby, gradually attenuated 

 towards the anal extremity ; a corneous, glabrous, dorsal 

 plate on the 2ud segment ; the dorsal surface transversely 

 wrinkled when at rest, and having a lateral skinfold ; small 

 bristles are scattered over the V)ody, more especially on the 

 13lh segment. Colour of the head clear chesnut-brown, with 

 black labrum and mandibles: body pale flesh-colour; the 

 ventral paler than the dorsal surface ; the legs and claspers 

 of the same pale hue as the ventral surface. Changes to a 

 smooth brown pupa in the interior of the reed, and the moth 

 makes its appearance in August. I am indebted for a supply 

 of this larva to Mr. Thomas Brown, of Cambridge, whose 

 kindness in supplying me with larvae, as well as information 

 respecting them, I have frequently had to acknowledge. — 

 Edward Newman. 



Entomological Notes and Captures. 



149. Remarks on the Synonymy of the Genus Dasytes. — 

 D. seratus, Steph., an insect common throughout the country, 

 seemed to be almost undescribed in continental works, and 

 has therefore been queried as seneiventris, Knst. That spe- 

 cies is, however, Italian, though possibly onlj^ a variety of 

 the present. D. aeratus would seem to have been first de- 

 scribed and figured by Olivier, in 1790, but was erroneously 

 referred by him to the M. ajneus, F. Schonherr, in 1817, 

 corrected ihe error, proposing the name subaeneus, under 

 which it has been described b}' Redtenbacher, Its syno- 

 nymy will therefore stand thus : — 



