262 



the dark coloured back shows off their delicate markings to a much greater 

 advantage than the white paper and methodical rows in a cabinet. 



The genus Acronycta is well represented, and of its rarest Bpecies 

 Acronycta alni I have met with a single larva. 



When first taken it had not changed its skin for the last time, and much 

 resembled a piece of sparrow's dung, the better to escape the sharp eyes of birds. 

 The only characteristic it had then attained was the clubbed hairs, and these 

 were few in number and very indistinct. In confinement it fed on the upper 

 eide of the leaf, choosing those half-way up a shoot of Alder in preference, but 

 sometimes taking a nibble at Oak and Birch. It grew rapidly, and drank an 

 unusually large quantity of water, was very sluggish, and after changing its 

 coat for the last time rolled off its food with the greatest readiness. 



Unlike the Dicranura larva it spun no pad of silk to secure its foothold 

 on the centre and upper side of the leaf it selected for a restirg place. "When 

 full fed it made a cocoon in a cork, rapidly excavating it to the depth of nearly 

 an inch, and roughly lining the cell so formed with a slight coating of silk. 



Tiie pupa differed from some others of the gs nus, being of a rather bright 

 reddish black, sbining, pointed at the tail, all the segments fully extended, and 

 was lively when touched, much more so than the pupte of Noctucce usually are. 



This insect, though exceedingly rare all over England, seems commonest in 

 the larva state. 



It is considered a difficult species to rear, and I think the want of moisture 

 in our breeding cages may be one of the chief reasons why so few of its larvae turn 

 properly. 



I have never found water injurious to larvae, whether given by wetting the 

 food, or allowing the dew to be on the leaves. Much has been written to 

 prove moisture fatal, but how do the insects manage in rainy weather ? 



They cannot do without eating for long at a time, and to crawl all over a 

 tree in search of a dry leaf would be beyond the power of the most active 

 caterpillar. 



From experiments I have made, I find larva? which often seem at the 

 point of death revive wonderfully when emersed in water for a few seconds, 

 and allowed afterwards to imb'be as much as they chonse. 



The rapid expansion, assisted by the softening influence of the bath, causes 

 their then tightly-fitting skins to crack, and a few energetic wrigglings are 

 sufficient to disentangle their worn out suits, which, if left alone, might have 

 been for days still on their backs, till they had wasted away to miserable masses 

 of skin, instead of being half-way on to another stage of coat-changing. 



The extensive family, the Leucanidce, are only represented by the com- 

 monest species, as it is a family chiefly found in districts where extensive marshes 

 abound. 



The genus Agrostis is also sparingly represented, but in it one new species 

 Agrostis reta occurs. 



