442 NOTES ON THE HABITS OF INSECTS. 



certain of the fact, I went this year to a pond, where Typha 

 latifolia abounds ; it was the first week in June ; — a few of • 

 the buh-ushes had the inner leaves yellowish and faded. On 

 opening these, 1 found the larvae of a whitish colour, like those 

 of Agrotis ; they are long, slender, with a corneous brown plate 

 on the lii'othoraxi^ and a paler dorsal and lateral line, of a 

 somewhat transparent appearance. By the middle of July 

 they had become thicker, and more of a brown hue. They 

 evidently do not subsist each on one plant, but having de- 

 voured the pith of the flower-stalk, and the base of the youngest 

 leaves, they quit that plant for another, eating, I believe, 

 downwards. When full grown, they spin a web in the upper 

 part of the stem, intermingling with the silk a large proportion 

 of the fibres of the bulrush, which they have gnawed oW, 

 always undergoing their metamorphosis head downward. 

 They remain about three or four weeks in the pupa; the 

 imago may sometimes be found amongst the plants on which 

 the larvae have fed. 



Sparganium erectum is attacked by a smaller moth,^ of 

 which I send you specimens in all the stages of larva, pupa, 

 and imago. The larva above is of a lightish brown, with a 

 paler dorsal line, beneath whitish; on the prothorax is a 

 broad corneous plate ; the telum is singularly flattened, with 

 two or three stiffish hairs at the extremity. There are also a 

 few scattered hairs on some of the other segments. The pupa 

 is pale-brown, elongate, with a furcate horn above the eyes, 

 and a small protuberance behind them. Around the middle 

 of each of the lower segments, commencing with the octoon, 

 is a row of small spines pointing downwards, — something 

 resembling that in the xylophagous Lepidoptera. The whole 

 appearance of the pupa reminds us of those of some Tipidcc. 



In habit, this moth resembles A'om. TyphcE ; but the larva 

 appears not to visit more than one plant. The pupa has the 

 head upwards. 



I am yours, most truly, 



A. 



" For tlie meaning of these terms, your reader will be kind enough to refer to 

 Mr. Newman's highly useful paper on Osteolony, at p. 394 ; before the publication 

 of which it was next to an impossibility to give an intelligible description of a 

 larva. — A. 



^ Orthulaniu nervosa. — Ed. 



