76 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
crown, sides and spot on each cheek shining black; mandibles blackish 
brown. Ground colour green, segmental divisions paler, dorsal line bluish 
green. ‘Tubercles, four dorsal rows (four on each segment) black, each 
with a moderately long grey hair, and tuft of shorter whitish bristles; the 
inner rows of warts are situate towards the anterior, and those forming the 
outer rows towards the posterior edges of segments; subdorsal, a black 
wart on each segment, with a moderately long grey hair, and tuft of short 
white bristles; spiracular, two small black contiguous warts on each 
segment, emitting whitish hairs. Prolegs and claspers semitransparent, 
dotted with grey. Food, rest-harrow (Ononis); feeds on the terminal 
leaves. June. 
Pupa.—Very like the larva; attached by the tail to the surface of a 
leaf of food-plant, generally on one of the terminal leaves. June and July. 
Plate IL. fig. 8, Mimeseoptilus pha@odactylus ; 3a, larva; 3 b, ditto, 
enlarged ; 3c, pupa, enlarged; 3 d, food-plant (Ononis arvensis). 
I have not met with this insect in any stage off the chalk. In 
North Devonshire, where Ononis grows in many places most 
luxuriantly, I did not see M. pheodactylus. I have also frequently 
examined patches of Ononis spinosa in various localities in 
Middlesex, but never observed the insect under consideration. 
Searching for the larva of this species is not easy work. The 
only way I could succeed in finding it was by kneeling down, and 
so bringing the eyes as close as possible to the plant. I may 
mention here that many leaf-feeding “plume” larve are in 
coloration and ornamentation exceedingly like the leaves on 
which they are found feeding or at rest. The larva of M. ph@o- 
dactylus is especially difficult to see on this account, and until the 
eye becomes, as it were, trained to the task, it will fail to readily 
detect the object of its quest. It may be that my vision is not of 
the keenest, but I have certainly searched for and found many 
other ‘‘plume” larve with greater facility. The foregoing 
remarks apply only to searching, for where Ononis is in a 
situation favourable to beating, larvae may be obtained without 
any of the unpleasant fatigue associated with searching. One 
season, at Ventnor, I got quite a hundred larvee of M. pheodactylus 
by beating a long strip of the food-plant growing on an over- 
hanging bank by a road-side. 
Mr. Farn kindly told me of a locality in Kent where he had 
observed Mimeseoptilus pheodactylus flying ; so as I wanted larve 
for figuring I went down there last June, in company with Mr. 
