NOi'ES ON BRITISH tE]Pir)0^1?EIlA. 



At p. 57, Herr H. Disque, of Speier-on-the Rhine, gives a 

 description of the larvse of Psamotis pulveralis, Hiib., and 

 Acentropus niveus, Ollivier : — 



Psamotis pulveralis. — " Larva : ground colour grey, with 

 violet-red stripes ; six black white-rimmed warts on each 

 segment ; head marbled, dark and light brown ; thoracic segment 

 black, divided down the middle, where it is paler; anal segment 

 pale brown. A female, taken in the beginning of August, laid 

 eggs, which hatched in about a fortnight's time, and produced 

 three imagos at the end of September ; these were bred in-doors. 

 The majority of the larvae died through being kept too dry." Is 

 there, under natural conditions, a regular second brood ? Can 

 the Folkestone collectors answer ? 



Acentropus niveus. — "Larva with sixteen feet; dirty whitish ; 

 head and thoracic segment inclining to yellowish ; the 4th to 8th 

 segments clouded, laterally, with brownish. Living free, on leaves, 

 or enclosed, like the pupse, in a whitish web, on Ceratophyllum 

 demersum. Of gills, through which the larvae are said to breathe, 

 no traces were to be seen. Except for size, they are very much 

 like the larvae of Hydrocampa stagnata. Larvae and pupae were 

 found in the beginning of May, and also in autumn. Imagos, 

 likewise, in August. The larvae were found, but more sparingly, 

 feeding also on other water-plants, — Myriophyllum, Trapa 

 natans, and species of Potamogeton. The whitish cocoons con- 

 taining the pupae were visible a yard below the surface of the 

 water, fastened to the axils of the leaves. From as many as 

 100 larvae and pupae collected, and which produced imagos 

 in fair numbers, only a very few females were bred. The 

 female imagos sat under water on a leaf, and there kept waving 

 to and fro their stumps of wings. In order to set them, it was 

 necessary to remove them straight from the water to the setting- 

 board, otherwise the wings became, as it were, glued to the body." 

 Herr Disque records a fact, connected with the powers of flight 

 of this species, which astonished him : — " He was sitting one 

 night on an elevated piece of ground, at least three-quarters of a 

 mile from the haunts of A. niveus, when a specimen fell at his 

 feet, attracted apparently by the glare of an electric-light close by. 

 As a rule, the males never rise far above the surface of the water 

 they frequent." 



At p. 81, the same writer describes the larvae of some Tortrices 

 and Tineina, which were previously, as far as I am aware, 

 unknown : — 



Teras Jimbriana, Thnbg. — " Larva full-fed, viii. e. ; to be 

 found between united leaves of sloe; greenish yellow; head 

 pale brown ; thoracic and anal segments like the body. Imago 

 emerged, ix. e. — xi. m." 



T. lubricana, Mn. — "Larva dirty grey; head black; thoracic 

 segment brown, black on the sides; less frequently entirely 



x< 



