TRIFW:£. 373 



about half grown till full growth they feed at night only, 

 and bury themselves during the day under the surface of the 

 earth. These larvEe were the produce of eggs laid by 

 captured females in September, the eggs hatching in from 

 ten days to a fortnight ; in the protection of a greenhouse 

 the larvte throve and fed up vigorously and rapidly, the 

 whole course from egg to imago occupying but two months ; 

 while those larvae which were kept in a cold situation fed 

 very slowly, and appeared disposed to pass the winter as 

 small larvas, but succumbed to the climate. The double 

 broodedness of this species seems to have been first estab- 

 lished about the year 1845. At the end of October of that 

 year the late Dr. K. 0. R. Jordan obtained eggs the larva3 

 from which fed on till the third week of January, when severe 

 frost destroyed their food, and all but two died. The 

 remaining two produced moths in March and April. A 

 pupa dug up in April produced the moth on May 1st. In 

 the year 1865 the late Rev. J. Hellins of Exeter obtained a 

 large batch of eggs, laid by a captured female at the end of 

 SejDtember, and found that, the weather being warm, they 

 hatched in tliree days, and that others obtained by a friend 

 hatched in five days. The larvas fed vigorously at once, but 

 the winter came too soon upon them and many died. Some 

 which had been sent to Mr. W. Buckler, and kept in a 

 greenhouse, however, fed up and emerged in May. A year 

 or two later Dr. Hearder obtained a female moth which had 

 been captured at light on May 25th ; it deposited eggs 

 which hatched in about a fortnight, the larv» feeding up at 

 the middle of August, and producing moths at the end of 

 that month. These details are of interest, exemplifying the 

 struggle constantly made by this species to maintain itself in 

 a climate unsuited to its constitution. 



Pupa of ordinary form ; red-brown ; in the earth. 



The moth doubtless hides itself among herbage during 

 the day ; apparently it is scarcely ever found at that time ; 



