1887.] 115 



Description of the larva and pupa of Nascia cilialis, Hb. — Seeing that it has 

 excited the interest of so many entomologists resident near, or occasionally visiting, 

 Wicken Fen, it is rather wonderful that this larva has not been described before in 

 this Magazine. It has long been known on the Continent (Heinemann, Die 

 Schmetterlinge Deutschlands, &c., Zweite Abtheilung, Band I, Heft ii, p. 68, 1865), 

 and in this country to Lord Walsingham, the late Mr. Buckler (both of whom 

 kindly gave me information about it), and to others, but I am not aware of its having 

 been bred on this side of the water before the present year. The explanation of this 

 is probably that during the day the larvae crawl down deep into the herbage, so 

 that they cannot be beaten into the tray, and that but a small proportion of the 

 moths taken at light (the usual mode of capturing the imago) are females, while 

 those that are taken do not lay readily, at any rate I have several times failed to 

 obtain eggs. My own acquaintance with the larva is limited to that of three speci- 

 mens, two of which I beat on successive days about the middle of September, 1882, 

 at about 5.30 p.m., from a plant locally called Lisp, which I believe is otherwise 

 known as Carex riparia. Believing in the " bird in the hand," I preserved these 

 larvae, greatly to the disgust of a brother entomologist. The third larva I received 

 on October 1st, 1886, from Mr. Albert Houghton — it is the subject of this account. 



In captivity it rested at full length on the under-side of a leaf of Carex, dropping 

 rather readily by a silken thread when disturbed. It was sluggish, and crawled but 

 slowly. When feeding it ate large pieces from the edges of the leaves. The head 

 of the larva is prone, larger than the second segment, pale yellow, down the middle 

 of it is continued the dorsal line, against this latter the lobes are edged with a faint 

 red stripe, they have also a broad red-purple one down the middle, corresponding 

 with the sub-dorsal line. The body is fusiform, thickest at the seventh and eighth 

 segments. The dorsal line is olive-green, with a reddish tinge on the hind part of 

 some of the central segments ; it runs from the head to the tip of the flap, and is 

 narrowly margined with sulphur-yellow. The sub-dorsal line is of a bright red- 

 purple, and is continued from the sides of the head round the flap. The sides of 

 the larva are bright yellow, most intense next the sub-dorsal line, gradually fading 

 into the pale green of the ventral area. The warts are indistinct, of the same colour 

 as the part on which they are situated ; each bears a short black hair, four of which 

 on the thirteentli segment are longer and more conspicuous than the rest. The 

 spiracles are pale. The laiwa spent the winter in an opaque papei-y cocoon in an 

 old reed stem, and pupated early in the second week in June. The moth (?) 

 emerged on June 22nd. The pupa measured 10 mm. by 2'5 mm. at the widest part. 

 The head, thorax, limb cases and upper abdominal segments were nearly black, the 

 posterior segments yellowish on the ventral aspect, shaded ofP into dark brown on 

 the dorsal. ' The wing-cases were well marked, those of the posterior-wings pro- 

 jecting beyond those of the anterior. The aiitennal cases curve outwards at their 

 tips round those of the wings. The thirteenth segment ends with a long, red, 

 flattened, horny process, which bears eight hooked spines arranged in four pairs. — 

 W. H. B. Fletcher, Fairlawn House, Worthing : September 3rd, 1887. 



The larva of Xascia cilialis.— 0^ this larva Von Heinemann gives us the 

 following information (Zunsler, p. 68) : — 



" Zincken found the larva in August on marsh-grasses in a moist alder-brake 



K -2 



