U/c-historji of OcoDiclra ^maviKjday'ui. 467 



the food fresh. The only Wcay to keep the food com- 

 paratively fresh is to dig up the Artemisia with a large 

 clod of earth, so as not to disturb the roots, and even 

 then it rarely keeps longer than a week. To be successful 

 therefore with these larva) a great deal of trouble must 

 be undergone. 



The perfect insects appear about the middle of July, 

 generally duringthe early morning, andremain motionless 

 the whole of the first day ; and I believe until daybreak of 

 the next, for I have looked at them as late as twelve o'clock 

 at night, and found them still motionless ; but, on again 

 looking at them about seven o'clock on the following 

 morning, some had paired, remaining in copuld during 

 the whole of that day, but parting towards the evening. 

 By the following morning the females had commenced 

 depositing ova, and continued to do so for four or five 

 days, each laying about 150 eggs altogether, and some 

 more. 



It seems singular that this insect should have remained 

 such an apparent rarity for so many years past ; but no 

 doubt the habits of the perfect insect are the cause. It 

 seldom moves unless disturbed, and then will generally 

 drop to the ground and remain motionless; but after 

 pairing the male becomes more active, and will ily about 

 if touched, when of course it soon gets damaged. In the 

 natural state I have no doubt it keeps concealed among 

 the Artemisia, and so escapes observation. 



The larva was first found by Mr. Machin, quite acci- 

 dentally, a few years back, and he kept the secret of its 

 food-plant; but two years ago I had the pleasure of 

 taking the larva myself, again quite by accident, and 

 recorded its discovery in the ' Entomologist ' (vol. xvii., 

 p. 235). As stated in that note, I did not then 

 know what the larva fed on ; and through my ignor- 

 ance of the food-plant made many fruitless journeys 

 to the Essex coast in search of it. One day, while 

 taking some cases of Colcophorce off the Artemisia, 

 I noticed what was apparently a withered shoot move ; 

 it then stretched itself out with a tremulous motion, 

 and I at once saw it was a larva of some kind, 

 and, being so much like hajularia, I concluded it must 

 be the species I had so many times looked for, viz., 

 sviaragdaria. My surmise proved correct, and I have 

 since been able to find the larva at many places on the 



