84. (September, 
Description of the transformations of Hepialus velleda.—It is with a feeling of 
great thankfulness to Mr. Joseph Steele, of Congleton, that I am able, through his 
untiring exertions, to bring to light the history of this species. 
The eggs were scattered by the parent moth on the ground amongst the stems 
of fern (Pteris aquilina) during the month of June. 
The egg is globular, and of a pale drab colour, which in a few hours changes 
to a deep blue-black. The young larva is hatched in three weeks; it is then of a’ 
drab colour, with pale, reddish-brown, horny head, plates and spots, and distinctly 
visible hairs. 
It immediately begins burrowing into the earth by the sides of the fern stems, 
nibbling them in its progress downwards to the root or rhizome of the fern, from 
which its future sustenance is to be derived during two seasons. 
By the end of the first twelve months of its existence, the larva has attained 
the average length of three-quarters of an inch, and is very slender an: active, of an 
opaque yellowish- or greyish-white, with three transverse blackish translucent 
streaks on the back of each segment, and the blackish dorsal vessel visible through 
the skin. 
It continues to feed till quite late in the autumn of its second year, when it 
becomes full-fed ; having, meanwhile, committed very extensive ravages on the fern. 
The rhizome, tough as it is, though juicy at the same time, is excavated and 
channelled out for about the length of ten inches, in some places nothing being 
left but the outer rind—in others, the galleries of the larva being scooped out tor- 
tuously along the outside. 
During its second winter, the larva remains torpid at some depth; but, on the 
advent of spring, approaches near the surface of the earth. 
It is now full grown, and, according to the sex, measures from 14 to 14 inches 
in length—rather thick in proportion, the folds and segmental divisions being very 
deeply cut, and the jaws remarkably large and prominent. 
In colour the head of the g is reddish-brown, with a distinctly defined plate of 
the same colour on the second segment, while in the ? the head is of a deeper and 
purplish-red; the mouth (in both sexes) blackish, and the plate on the second seg- 
ment of a pale brownish-orange, at each side blending gradually into the ground 
colour of the body, which is of a whitish cream tint; the third and fourth segmerts 
have pale brownish-orange plates on the back; viz., a large drop-shaped one in the 
middle extending from the back down either side, with a shuttle-shaped one before 
and another behind: a similarly coloured plate is on the anal tip. 
The dorsal vessel is seen through the thoracic segments as a pulsating tortuous 
blackish streak; the tubercular spots on the back are orange, each on an eminence 
of the ground colour; those on the sides are small and dusky, and each is furnished 
with a highly sensitive brown hair. The spiracles are black, and rather large in size. 
From near the end of April to the beginning or middle of May, according to 
the season, the larva proceeds to spin a slight cocoon of silk, covered with light . 
earthy particles, amongst the loose vegetable soil, in which it remains a pupa for 
about a month, 
The pupa of the g is about three-quarters, and the § seven-eighths of an inch 
long, of a uniform, reddish-brown coluur, thick in proportion throughout ; the tip of the 
abdomen is blunt and rounded, the head slightly beaked, the segments deeply cut ; 
