1888.] 225 



LARV^ OF L'EPIDOPTEEA FEEDING- ON C0CCID2E. 



BY J. W. DOUGLAS, F.E.S. 



The " Bulletin dea Seances de la Societe Entomologique de 

 France," 25tli August, 1886, p. 234, contains a Note by M. Peragallo, 

 of Nice, on the coccophagous habits of the larva of Erastria scitula, 

 Hiibn., which is designated " une chenille utile a I'agriculture." This 

 Note has been deemed of sufficient interest to be translated into 

 German, and it appears as an article in the part of the " Stettiner 

 entomologische Zeitung " just published (48 Jahrg., p. 274). 



The narrative of M. Peragallo shows that under some con- 

 glomerated scales of Ceroplastes rusci on branches of a fig tree, covered 

 by a peculiar pergameneous web, was a larva (or pupa), which M. 

 Milliere recognised as that of Erastria scitula, Hiibn., and he has 

 described it in the " Eevue d'Entomologie," 1884. From the shelter- 

 places formed by the scales he collected these Erastria larvae in the 

 winter, not only on the figs, but also on oleanders and Yuccas 

 attacked by Coccids of different kinds having firm shells, and he 

 obtained the moths in May. On the 1st July, when clearing away 

 the numerous black shells of Lecanium from the lower leaves of a 

 Yucca growing in his garden at Nice, he observed in the midst of the 

 Coccids some cots of all sizes of Erastria, the inhabitants of which 

 (of all ages) moved about each with a shell on its back. Having 

 watched them, more particularly those not larger than the head of a 

 pin, he arrived at the following conclusion. The females of Erastria 

 disclosed in May couple, and then lay their eggs in the midst of the 

 female Coccids, which at that time are full of yellowish-salmon- 

 coloured eggs. The little larva when hatched enters a shell, and soon 

 empties it ; when the young larva does not find enough nourishment 

 in the shell it leaves it, and, still keeping the shell on its back, seeks 

 a second, and plunges its head into the new victim ; and when it has 

 emptied this, like the first, it takes the shell on its back and welds it 

 to the first.* When the larva is full-fed, and has constructed for 

 itself a carapace composed of at least four shells, which had contained 

 1000 or 1200 eggs, it fastens itself, in order to undergo its trans- 

 formation, to a branch or leaf, or in a crevice of the bark, and often, 

 in company with others of its species, towards the base, isolating 

 itself by means of a pergameneous web adhering to the leaf or branch. 



It is certain that Erastria scitula feeds exclusively on the eggs 

 contained in the firm shell of Ceroplastes and Lecanium ; that it uses 



* In a similar manner the larvae of Hemervbii disguise themselves with the skins of their 

 Aphidian victims —J. W. D. 



