is'js.j 245 



position near the tip of the shoot, but sometimes on the main stem, 

 when it fastens the leaves of the shoot down with its silken gallery. 

 Occasionally it joins two shoots together near their tips. It does not 

 appear to leave its first gallery until it wishes to pupate, when it retires 

 from it to seek a convenient spot, spinning a slight cocoon. In con- 

 finement it descends into the earth to spin up, and Mr. Harwood 

 writes me of his second expedition after the larvae — " I was too late 

 for larvae, but found the cocoons in plenty in the sand under the 

 food-plants." The larva is often abundant on Suceda fruticosa in May, 

 being full-fed towards the end of the month. There is no trace of 

 any larvae in tbe Suceda at the time when those of Lita instahilella are 

 feeding, so that the egg does not appear to hatch until the end of 

 April. Though the brood which pupates in May and emerges in the 

 first half of July is so abundant, I have had but little experience of a 

 second brood. I found larvae in some numbers feeding on S. maritima 

 on August 31st, 1889 (I should mention that 8. maritima, which is an 

 annual, is hardly visible in May, and therefore not then available as 

 food), but the second brood seems very uncertain, and I have only seen 

 it on one other occasion, viz., in 1892, when I found but one larva on 

 8. maritima. I unfortunately mislaid the box containing the pupated 

 larvae of August, 1889, and did not again find it until May, 1890, when 

 the moths were all out and dead, so that I cannot tell whether the 

 emergence took place in the autumn or early spring. 



Larva of Lita plantaginella : — 



Body with the nine middle segments of uniform width, tapering more at the 

 tail than at the head. 



Head polished, brown ; prothoraeic plate polished, black, divided by dorsal line 

 of ground-colour ; legs black ; anal plate of ground colour, slightly polished, incon- 

 spicuous. 



Ground-colour dirty yellowish, sometimes with a greenish tinge, and sometimes 

 slightly tinged with pink, not polished. There are often faint dull pink markings, 

 \iz., dorsal line, subdorsal line composed of an irregular double longitudinal mark 

 on each segment, and a somewhat wavy line below the spiracles. These markings 

 ai*e sometimes quite obsolete, and generally less distinct towards the head. Warts 

 polished, black, and very small, except the subdorsal ones on 13th segment. Bristles 

 almost transparent. Spiracles, when magnified, distinctly outlined with bhtck. 



I have found this larva on Plantago lanceolata, but P. coronopus 

 seems here to be its favourite food-plant. It also feeds (Ent. Mo. 

 Mag., XV, 89) on P. maritima, but I have not found it on this plant. 



The egg is doubtless laid near the middle of a shoot, and the 

 larva burrows in the root to the depth of nearly half an inch, feeding 



