818 The Zoologist — August, 1866. 



others continuously for three or four days. The larvae at first were ochreous, with a 

 blackish interrupted dorsal line, and fed on Triticum repens, were very sluggish, ofien 

 hiding low down amongst the grass, and hybernated when about four lines in length. 

 One larva only survived the wiuter, and was kindly presented to me on the ISih May, 

 1865, by Mr. Hellins, to wliom I am indebted fur the following account of it. The 

 larva had shnwn a partiality for Aira ca-spitosa, previous to my receiving it, and on this 

 it was therefore placed, being then about eight lines in length. On ihe 20ih of May 

 I chanced lo dig up a rather larger larva of this species frmn u waste piece of sandy 

 ground near the sea, amongst Aira praecox and oiher small grasses, which rendered 

 the task of rearing doubly iiueresiing, in observing the habits of e.ich, kepi separate 

 and on different food. The captured larva, on being placed under a ghiss in a pot 

 with its native growing food, immediately burrowed in tiie sandy eartli, and the lew 

 limes it was seen on the grass was always at night, and each morning brought evidence 

 of its doing well by the diminished grass. About the 14th ol June these indications 

 ceased, and on the 23rd I searched for the pupa, and found it in a hollow space a 

 quarter of an inch below the surface, the particles of sand and earth very slifihlly 

 cohering togellier, and chise to the roots of •■rass yet free from them. The pujia was 

 obtuse, rounded, tumid and smooth, the abdominal rings scarcely visible, and wholly 

 of a deep red mahogany colour. Tiie perfect insect, a male, appeared July 24th. The 

 larva, reared wholly in captivity fmni the egg, always remained on its rigid food, with 

 its head uppermost, when feeding, which at lirst it did day and night till it was an inch 

 long, from which time it fed only at night, remaining all dav at rest on the trrass, with 

 its head downwards, in comparative darkness, amongst the lower parts of the steins. 

 It never showed any disposition to burrow, though the soil was supplied for the 

 purpose, until it was full fed, about the middle of June. The bullerQy, a male, 

 appeared on the 5ih of August. No material diff^jrence existe 1 betwee^i the tsvo larvae, 

 excepting that the captured one was rather less bright and distinct in colour and 

 markings than the other. The full grown larva is an inch and a half in length, 

 tapering much to the anal forked extremity and a little towards the head, which is 

 globular. Ground colour ol the back a delicately mottled ilral), with longitudinal 

 Stripes, broadest along the middle segments, viz. a dorsal stripe of olive-brown, very 

 daik at the beginning of each segmeni, with a thin edging of brownish white. Three 

 stripes along the snbihusal region, of which the first is composed of a double narrow 

 line of yellowish brown, the second wiiler, of the mottled ground colour, edged al)uve 

 with paler and below with white, and the third of a similar wiilih of dark jjray-brown, 

 ed};ed above with black. Spiracular stripe broader and of nearly ecpial width, of pale 

 ochreous-brovvn, edged both above and below with brownish while. The spiracles 

 black. Belly and leys drab colour. Head brown, on which the principal stripes of 

 the body are delicately marked with darker brown. — William Bwkler, in ' Enloinnlo. 

 yisl's Monthly Magazine' for Janwirt/, 1866. [.Mr, Logan, of Duddington, many 

 years back published a very minute description of this larva and its economy, and a 

 still prior account may be found iu Sepp : the three admirably corroborate each 

 other. — Edward Newman']. 



