872 rROCEEDIN'GS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



53.— SOME NOTES TOWARDS THE LIFE-HISTORY OF COMO- 

 CRITIS PIERIA, MEYRICK. 



By R. Senior-White, F.E.S. 

 References. 

 Meyrick, J. Bom. N. H. S., XVII, 416, (1906) ; Antram. hid. 

 Tea Assoc. Bull. 5, (1907) ; Grfeen, Trans. Ill Con. Trap. 

 Ag. Vol. I, 631, (1914) ; Rev. App. Ent. IV, 389, (1916) ; 

 Cey. Dep. Ag. Rpt., 1916, p. 9 ; Rev. App. Ent. V, 497, 

 (1917) ; Ind. Tea Assoc. Q. J. 1918, pt. I, p. 8. 



Food. 



Green originally gave the food as lichens and algse on rubber bark, 

 though Meyrick in his original description notes that the specimens 

 sent him were also eating the bark itself. Antram and Andrews in North- 

 East India record it as eating tea-bark, whilst Green in his paper before 

 the Third Congress of Tropical Agriculture and later references refer to 

 it as eating rubber-bark. 



Myself I have found it only on rubber-bark. If in eating this a 

 lichenous patch is met with, this also is consumed, but only in so far 

 as this lies in the line taken, which is not diverted for the sake of the 

 lichen. 



On rubber the burrows in the bark are seldom found below 5 feet 

 from ground-level, and continue upwards to 20-30 feet from the ground. 

 I have not seen it eat renewed bark, though this of course is now-a-days 

 seldom found over four feet from the ground. I have never heard of 

 or seen it on tea in Ceylon. 



The actual burrow is shallow, usually only 2 mm. or so deep, and 

 may branch in any direction ; a burrow often " peters out," (no larva 

 being found at the head of it), without any apparent reason why it should 

 have been abandoned. 



Egg. 



No references. Apparently nothiag known. I have utterly failed to 

 find it myself. 



Larva. 



In Ceylon the colour of the larva is nearly crimSon, the yellow colour 

 described by Antram being that of the pre-pupa only. The dark contents 

 of the intestines often show through the crimson. The abdominal 

 prolegs are doubtfully fimctional — they are not used in progressing on a 

 smooth surface such as a table, when the abdomen is slightly arched and 

 only the anal suckers assist the true legs. Beneath the web the larva 



