100 First Report on Economic Zoology. 



Most of the small " leather-jackets " infesting gardens are of tliis 

 species ; they especially attack lettuce, peas, young brassic?e, and 

 garden flowering plants. 



There are two broods during the year, and in some seasons 

 possibly a third. Curtis records them as early as May. I have 

 taken it in numbers as late as August. 



The adult (Fig. 11, 5) is yellow, the abdomen having a broad 

 inteiTupted dorsal line ; the head has a dark triangular patch behind ; 

 the thorax three black stripes, the lateral pair curved outwards at the 

 front end ; and the sides (pleiuTe) before the halteres blackish-brown 

 on three sides. The wings are transparent with a pale brown stigma. 

 The ihin delicate legs are testaceous, dusky towards the tips. In 

 length this species varies from a little under to half an inch. 



The eggs of P. maculosa are oval and jet black. The larvse when 

 mature are never more than three-quarters of an inch long. In 

 colour they are earthy and the skin is wrinkled, but not tough as in 

 the Ti]jvlc€. They are cylindrical, somewdiat attenuated at each end ; 

 the alimentary canal shows through the skin, above and below, as a 

 broad dark stripe. Each segment has a transverse row of four stiff 

 bristles, the inner ones of each row the shorter ; laterally are short, 

 stiff, black hairs. They can at once be told from the large leatlier- 

 jackets when the latter are immature, i.e., about the size of matm-e 

 maculosa grubs, by the anal processes ; in this species the truncated 

 tail has two hooks or papillae, and two short ones between them, with 

 two blunt tubercles below and two fleshy protuberances capable of 

 dilatation and contraction ; there are also two central spii'acles ; 

 between each stigma and the ventral papillae a transverse row of 

 three small dark brown spots. They reach maturity in the spring 

 and pupate in the soil. The pup?e are brown to golden brown in 

 colour, slightly narrower than the larvie, and have the two straight 

 cephalic horns ; the abdominal segments have each a row of minute 

 spines above and six large ones beneath, and on either side an 

 elevated spiny line, the penultimate segment has six long spines and 

 two small ones, and there is a large conical process at the tail with a 

 shorter one beneath it. Curtis describes them as not only eating 

 roots, but also eating off trusses of the strawberry flowers close to the 

 •crown. He also found them in May at the roots of lilacs and 

 amongst the roots of grass ; they also destroyed carrots, raspberry and 

 strawberry roots, lettuces and various flowers. Miss Ormerod, as 

 previously noted, gives records of its damage in the Scottish uplands, 

 where its working was mistaken for that of the larva of the Antler 

 Moth (Chara;as graminis). 



