NOTES ON BOLETOBIA FULIGINARIA. 155 



it would be more absolutely conclusive if I could feed the larva 

 on this pabulum at my leisure. At once Mr. Upton broke off a 

 portion of this fungus-covered rotten wood, and, removing one 

 of the larval, gave it to me to bring home ; and I have had the 

 great satisfaction of seeing it not only eat, but thrive upon, the 

 fungus for the past three weeks, and of showing it to several 

 entomological friends. This, I think, establishes the genuineness 

 of Mr. Upton's Boletobia fuliginaria beyond doubt. 



The larvae we saw on the 24th of May varied from about three- 

 eighths to five-eighths of an inch long. The colour and markings, 

 then, were very much of the same character as the now (June 

 14th) full-fed larva, which is about seven-eighths of an inch long, 

 moderately stout for a Geometer larva, cylindrical in form, 

 attenuating slightly at the anterior and posterior segments. 

 The ground colour is of a sooty-black, the dorsal line marked 

 by ten pairs of orange-coloured raised tubercles, two on 

 each segment. The four central segments have also a second 

 pair of smaller and less distinct tubercles, from the region of 

 which spring longish and curiously recurved hairs. The 

 spiracular line is also indicated by a row of raised orange- 

 coloured tubercles. When full fed it spins up in the crevices of 

 the rotten wood, and forms a fairly compact cocoon of greyish 

 silk, the outside being coated with particles of fragments of wood 

 and dried fungus. Three old cocoons, from which Mr. Upton 

 had bred some of his insects last year, were handed to me, and 

 these show most markedly the character of the wood on which 

 grew the fungus where I saw the larva feeding in a state of 

 nature. 



I forwarded a portion of this fungus-covered wood to 

 Dr. M. C. Cooke, who is one of our ablest authorities on 

 British fungi, and he most kindly determined it for me as an 

 effused Muscedine, — order Hypomycetes, family Muscedines (see 

 ' Handbook of British Fungi,' p. 587). Dr. Cooke could not 

 determine the genus, as it was not then in the stage of develop- 

 ment necessary for identification. 



6, Lewisham Eoad, Greenwich, June 14, 1884. 



PS. — The larva was full fed, and duly spun up its charac- 

 teristic cocoon, on June 25th. 



