THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. XXIV.] DECEMBER, 1891. [No. 343. 



EARLY STAGES OP ABQYROLEPIA MARITIMANA, Guen. 



Br Geoege Elisha, F.E.S. 



Plate V. 



The egg is, no doubt, laid in the flower-heads of the sea- 

 holly (Eryngium maritimum), (fig. 1), and occasionally in the 

 strong flowering side-shoots, about the first week in July, for 

 I have observed traces of the operations of the larva towards the 

 end of the month in a slight discoloration, which gradually 

 extends as the larva works downwards in the stem, till the whole 

 of the immature flower-head becomes withered and brown. 



The larva, in many cases, on arriving at the first joint, eats 

 its way out, and crawling down the stem bores a fresh hole under 

 the first joint above the surface of the sand, gradually working 

 its way in and down towards the soft fleshy root (fig. 6 a) ; others 

 mine from the flower-head through the whole length of the stem, 

 which is filled with frass as the larva proceeds. They are all 

 down in the roots by about the beginning of September, and 

 continue mining some considerable distance, in many cases to a 

 depth of six or eight inches below the surface of the sand. 



About the first week in October they are getting full grown, 

 and this is about the best time to collect them, for if taken 

 earlier the difficulty of rearing them is so great that it is sheer 

 waste of time to take them, to say nothing of the useless 

 destruction of such a very local species. 



The larva (fig. 2) is white, inclining to yellowish, rather trans- 

 parent looking, with brown head and black spiracles, emitting short 

 hairs, and is about three-quarters of an inch when full grown ; it 

 eats out the whole of the interior portion of the soft root, leaving 

 only a thin shell or skin, and remaining in the larva state till the 

 end of March, when they are found working their way up to the 

 top of the root, where they hollow out a sort of chamber ; and to- 

 wards the beginning of May change to the pupa state (figs. G, 7). 



ENTOM. — DEC. 1891. 2 E 



