1870.] 13 
been great discussion as to how far we are indebted to immigration for these friendly 
visitors, and from whence they come; of course opinions differ greatly, but I am 
inclined to believe we need not revert to the Continent to account for their presence. 
In my own garden there have been immense numbers, but the number of the larva 
was also very great. Their onward movement in search of fresh supplies of food 
would, I think, account for their congregating on the shore, which has led to the 
impression that they had just arrived in this country ; but their flight, though rapid, 
is not, I believe, sufficiently sustained to carry them far over the sea, into which 
they would drop exhausted and perish. In support of this view I will mention 
that a yacht, belonging to Mr. Cresswell, of Lynn, sailing off Hunstanton, passed 
through a mass of dead lady-birds about 19 feet broad, accumulated on the surface of 
the water for two or three miles. This occurred in the Wash, about nine miles from 
the Norfolk, and thirteen miles from the Lincolnshire shore ; the wind was very 
light from off the Norfolk shore, and the exact locality the entrance to the channel 
called the “ Bull Dogs.” Mr. Cresswell thus accounts for their presence :—-At low 
water there are uncovered sands, with pools and channels between them, and he 
presumes that the mass of dead Lady-birds were drowned by the rising water and 
brought by the current into the vast accumulation the yacht passed through. 
There is very little doubt they left the Norfolk shore, and, alighting on the first 
uncovered spot they came to, were saved from dropping exhausted into the sea, only 
to be drowned by the rising tide. But, had they been able to return to the Norfolk, 
or proceed to the Lincolnshire coast, any one witnessing this would have been im- 
pressed with the belief that they came from the Continent.--T. SourHwriL 
(extracted from the ‘Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ 
Society ”’ ). 
Description of the larva of Scoparia muralis.—On the 20th of May, 1869, Dr. F. 
Buchanan White kindly sent me a supply of larvee of this species, together with 
some of their native food-plants, Bryum capillare and Hypnum cupressiforme, on 
which they continued to feed till about the end of the month, constructing, by 
means of slight silken threads, little tunnels for themselves through the moss or 
the soil at its roots ; and when disturbed, they could show considerable activity. 
The full-grown larva is five-eighths of an inch in length, very slender, cylin- 
drical, and tapering a little behind, the head rounded, and a trifling degree smaller 
than the second segment. 
In colour ii is either a dingy ochreous-brown, greyish-brown, or a turbid violet- 
brown, darkest on the back, becoming gradually paler towards the ventral surface ; 
a faint indication of the dorsal vessel is visible as a rather darker pulsating stripe, 
which commences on the second segment, conspicuously dividing the dark brown 
plate there into two parts ; on the other segments are the ordinary series of tuber- 
cular spots, horny, dark brown, and very large in proportion, especially on the back, 
and shining like the head, thoracic plate, and the anal paler plate; on the dorsal 
region of each segment the anterior pair of these spots are circular, and the poste- 
rior pair transversely oval, and every one is furnished with a fine brown hair. 
No less than fourteen of the moths appeared between June 27th and July 8th. 
—Wn. Bucktrr, Emsworth, January, 1870. 
