A Damp Bed 109 



water. In Scotland I have dug up the pupae from the 

 comparatively dry peat (often it is as dry as tinder at the 

 season) round the tops of the pits from which peat has been 

 cut for fuel, so that, when it can secure a dry resting place, 

 the caterpillar would seem to prefer it, but in hundreds of 

 cases no such comfortable quarters can be forthcoming. 

 Somewhat analogous cases occur with some of the larger 

 moths, caterpillars of Puss or Hawk Moths being not 

 uncommonly found on slender willow stems growing in 

 water, where it is impossible for them ever to spin up, or 

 turn to chrysalides, in a normal way. I suppose that many 

 such creatures must be foredoomed to destruction ; but 

 finding their retreat cut off, they may drop into the water, 

 trusting to chance to being carried ashore before they drown, 

 and in that way a remnant of them may escape. With 

 Celoena, however, I think the case must be different, and 

 probably the hundreds of larvae that cannot find a dry place 

 in which to undergo their metamorphosis, complete their 

 change in what, at best, must be a damp bed. The moths 

 which occur here do not vary much from type, but in all of 

 them the white orbicular spot is conspicuous, and the white 

 nervures perhaps rather more pronounced than is often the 

 case elsewhere. At this Arenig lakelet, any number of 

 them might have been collected on an August afternoon, as 

 they settled on the flowering heads of Poa fluitans and other 

 grasses. 



Another of the Minors, which I have little doubt occurs 

 at Llanuwchllyn, is Miana captiuncula, usually considered 

 rather a local species. When examining Carices I found 

 their stems tunnelled in many places, not only C. glauca^ 

 but also C. flava, by a small lepidopterous caterpillar which 

 must, I think, have been this species. Unfortunately, I did 

 not pay much attention to them at the time, and none were 

 reared ; but anyone chancing to read these notes, who is 

 interested in the local entomology, would, I have little 

 doubt, be able to establish the record without much trouble. 

 Some of the mined carices were gathered on the moors 

 along the railway side, west of the village, others on the 

 slopes of the hill below Llyn Lliwbran. 



