POTATO-STEM BORER. 103 



distinctly marked, each has sixteen or eighteen minute black warts, 

 and each wart emits a minute but rather stiff black bristle ; there is a 

 corneous glabrous plate ou the second and thirteenth segments ; the 

 colour of the head is testaceous red, of the body greyish flesh colour, 

 with a very narrow darker medio-dorsal stripe ; the dorsal has more 

 colour than the ventral surface, which has a glaucous or bleached 

 appearance ; . . . the legs and claspers are nearly concolorous with 

 the ventral area." — (E. N.) 



When three-quarters grown — that is, an inch and one-sixteenth in 

 length — the larva is described by William Buckler * as somewhat 

 darker in the general colouring, especially that of the upper part. 

 " The colour of the back and sides down to the spiracles was a rather 

 deep purplish red-brown without gloss, and a little paler on the 

 thoracic segments and at the divisions ; the sides below the spiracles, 

 the belly, and the legs were paler, and of a dingy flesh colour ; the 

 head ochreous brown, and mandibles blackish brown ; a polished pale 

 ochreous brown semicircular plate on the second segment rather 

 broadly margined in front with blackish brown ; a small sbining pale 

 ochreous plate on the anal tip, having a terminal border of very small 

 dark warts. ... At the beginning of July the larva had attained 

 an inch and three-eighths in length, . . . having meanwhile gradually 

 grown paler on the back ; and by the 10th of the month the upper and 

 under surfaces were both alike of a deep smoky dull flesh colour. In 

 this case the larva had fed on Equisetum, popularly known as ' Mare's- 

 tails,' or 'Cat's-tails' ; but at this date it ceased eating, and excavated 

 a hole in the earth at the side of its pot, in which, by the fifteenth, it 

 changed to a light ochreous brown pupa, three-quarters of an inch 

 long, from which the moth emerged on the 14th of August." — (W. B.) 



The moth is from an inch and a quarter to a little over an inch 

 and a half in expanse of the fore wings, which are variously described 

 as of a pale brown ground colour, with a rosy tinge, or of a " rich 

 reddish brown"; on the wing is a "broad dark patch," otherwise 

 described as a " broad median band," the outer portion being " very 

 rich dark brown." Hind wings " whitish grey with darker central 

 line," or "dingy grey brown with a darker crescentic discoidal spot, 

 and transverse median bar " ; the antennae nearly white. 



On communicating with Mr. Sim regarding the unusually small 

 size of the imagos, which he had been good enough specially to rear 

 for, and to send to me, he replied, on Oct. 27tli : — " It is very probable 

 that the specimens which I bred would be dwarfed, as they were only 

 half-fed when I found them, and their food was only replaced on two 

 occasions." But with regard to further observation, Mr. Sim con- 



* See ' Larvas of British Butterflies and Moths,' by the late William Buckler, 

 vol. iv. p. 51. Kay Society. 



