Progressive melanism oil the Rivierd. l6l 



they were almost absolutely solitary, one to a plant. 

 Their position in the plant was amongst the central 

 leaves rather low down, diiferent from that of T. tmi- 

 colorana, which occupies and remains in the tips of the 

 older leaves and is fairly conspicuous in consequence. 

 Very occasionally two larvte were found in a plant, and on 

 one occasion only did I find four larvae in a plant. A 

 marked result of this variation in the habits of the larva is 

 that, whilst at Hyeres an affected plant was conspicuous 

 at some distance, and "wrecked" and "destroyed" were 

 words one naturally employed to describe the effect on the 

 foliage and inflorescence of the plant, at Taormina a 

 plant containing a larva differs at first view in no way 

 from one without one, and it is only on closer scrutiny and 

 usually after moving the leaves a little, that one finds some 

 of the central ones to be suspiciously close together as an 

 indication that a larva is present. I am not inclined to 

 think these differences have much to do with accidental 

 differences of season, but that they are the normal habits 

 of the species at the two localities; probably due to the 

 different effect of the local climates on the food-plant. 

 The Taormina asphodel seems to be the A. vticrocarints, 

 the same as that at Hyeres, but the aspect of the plants 

 regarded as vegetables is considerably different. At 

 Hyeres most plants were large, vigorous and succulent, 

 two feet or more high (three or four sometimes), with great 

 bundles of thick leaves, affording abundant food for a 

 dozen or more larvas. At Taormina I only saw two or 

 three such plants, growing in favoured damp situations, 

 and on these and others nearly as vigorous I saw no larvae 

 of the Tortrix. The mass of the plants are about fifteen 

 to eighteen inches high with few leaves, and a very small 

 proportion attempt to flower. On one slope on April 8th, 

 when only about a third of the larvae had done feeding, 

 these stunted plants were already dying down from 

 maturity or drought. On the other hand, these stunted 

 plants are often very abundant and tolerably close 

 together. 



It was puzzling to understand how a moth could 

 survive who laid her eggs in large batches, and yet only 

 supplied each plant with one larva. 



It is still rather a puzzle to see how one larva only 

 exists in each plant, but there can be little doubt that as 

 soon as the young larvae are hatched, they exercise an 



