so [March, 



but Duval sajs that one species " remonte jusqu' au sud de I'Aiigleterre :" the evi- 

 dence for M. ctircuUonoides as indigenous is certainly not quite satisfactory as yet, 

 but it deserves at all events a prominent admission to the British list quite as mucli 

 as many other species. — Id. 



On the larvcB of Olcea spadicea and G. vaccinii. — I made efPorts to get larvae 

 of these species for some years, and reared numbers of O. vaccinii, but always failed 

 to get larvae of G. spadicea till last season, when Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher most kindly 

 sent me some eggs. Both species are abundant here at sugar in autumn in most 

 seasons, and most specimens can be easily distinguished, but there are a few rather 

 puzzling as to which species they should belong to ; these doubtful specimens are, I 

 believe, almost always spadicea. In the spring, at sugar and sallows, only vaccinii 

 is to be seen, and though I hoped some worn specimens might be spadicea, as a fact 

 I never got from these eggs anything but vaccinii ; and the larvae they produced 

 were always of one type, and the moths reared were always vaccinii. 



Mr. Fletcher tells me the eggs of spadicea he got were laid in mid-winter by 

 moths captured in autumn — they were hatching when I received them, — and, so 

 far as examination in such circumstances showed, were not distinguishable from 

 those of vaccinii. By beating oaks in May, I have met with the larva of vaccinii 

 freely, of about one-fourth to one-third of an inch long, but never with that of 

 spadicea. 



The spadicea larvae were about three weeks in advance of those of vaccinii, but 

 by placing some of the former in a cool cellar, I retarded them, so that I obtained 

 some of the full-grown larvae of each side by side. Since the moth dies earlier, and 

 the eggs are laid earlier (in late autumn or winter), it is probable that tliis difference 

 in the ages of the two larvae is normal. 



The young larva of G. vaccinii is a very delicate-looking semi-translucent 

 creature, of a pale flesh tint, with very few markings ; that of spadicea looks rather 

 more solid, and its prevailing tint is green or greenish-olive. When full-grown, the 

 larvae are very much alike, though the brown of vaccinii tends more to ruddy, that 

 of spadicea to chocolate, but there is nothing in this to enable me to separate them ; 

 and the fine marblings, of which the markings consist, are precisely alike in pattern. 

 I endeavoured to find some distinction in the dark markings of the head, and thought 

 certain dark markings characteristic of spadicea, but found on examining a number of 

 larvae that these were variable, and varied in the same way in both species, with a 

 greater inclination to the darker forms in spadicea. There is,however, one character 

 that appears to be constant, as no specimen of the small number of spadicea, and 

 the very large number of vaccinii I have had, shows any indication of approaching 

 the character of the other species. Curiously enough, I picked up two full-grown 

 larvae in the garden, these both agreed with the spadicea reared from the egg and 

 produced characteristic moths. 



Where the dark dorsal colouring merges into the paler ventral, there is no very 

 definite line in vaccinii dividing the one area from tlie other, not only is the change 

 of tint gradual, but so far as it is rapid, it is waved or zigzag, and the change is only 

 one of intensity ; in spadicea the change occurs along a definite straight lateral line, 

 and is from an olive-brown suddenly to a richly tinted reddish-orange region, forming, 

 in fact, an orange spiracular band. 



1 



