﻿1860. 163 



a small glass bottle without poison in it, got it, and left him evidently wondering 

 at my haste, and perhaps thinking that I did mean to put poison in the bottle. 

 And so I did, for a little further on I stole a leaf (only one and that very little) 

 from a laurel bush, crushed it into the bottle, and strode on. Arrived at the lane, 

 I was soon prostrate on the sunny, grassy bank, poked about 

 the roots; of the grass, saw several Calyptonotus pedestris, and 

 one Asiraca, ? , which at once perched daintily on my hand. 

 She had emerged from the base of a tuft of grass, looking for 

 all the world like an Ochsenheimeria Birdella, and I rewarded 

 her confidence by paying her more than heroic honour in 

 placing her above the laurel. Here is a rough contemporaneous 

 portrait of one of her ancestors, and so true are the lineaments 

 of the race, preserved by nature, that this " false presenti- 

 ment " may serve for the exact likeness of my captive. 

 History, it is said, repeats itself. On the 7th October instant, I was at the 

 same place, under similar circumstances, and I again found one Asiraca, this time a 

 male, and one pupa. Having posted up my friend Scott with these data, he has 

 since had the felicity of taking " a lot " of this extraordinary species in the said 

 place, among the roots of grass. — J. W. Douglas, Lee, October 16th, 1869. 



Notes on the earlier stages of Nothris verbascella. — On coming to Norwich, one 

 of my first objects was, of course, to find Nothris verbascella, and before I had been 

 here many weeks, I had obtained from Mr. Jas- Eeeve (who recorded its capture in 

 the " Intelligencer " years ago) directions where to find it. Accordingly, on October 

 20th, 1868, I went to the locality indicated, and found in the undeveloped leaves at 

 the heart of the plants of Verbascum pulverulentum very young larvae already at 

 work, eating out these leaves and filling the empty space with black frass, but 

 leaving the woolly covering of the leaves almost untouched. All through the 

 winter they continued to feed slowly, and when the leaves began to grow in the 

 spring the larvae rapidly increased in size and voracity. At this time, however, 

 and through the spring, fresh ones appeared to be hatched, for at the end of April, 

 when many larvae were well grown and a few had entered the pupa state, there 

 were still plenty of minute ones, and this continued to be the case till the middle of 

 June ; and even as late as July 3rd, when the plants had thrown up their flower 

 spikes two or three feet high, half-grown larvae were still to be found feeding in the 

 younger leaves, and even boring into the leaf, stalks, and stems. At the same 

 time pupae were to be found in a slight web, on the under-side of the large lower 

 leaves, generally in the angle of two ribs, or in a turned-down edge of a leaf. 



My first specimen of the perfect insect emerged indoors on May 22nd, and 

 they continued slowly to come out till the middle of July ; while at large I noticed 

 the first flying late in the evening of June 25th, and the last on August 15th, but 

 in the perfect state they are seldom seen. 



The habits of the larvae are curious. They do not mine a leaf, that is, they eat 

 the whole of the solid substance, but take care to leave the soft down with which 

 it is covered, and this is so thick as to form a complete protection for them. 

 Indeed, so necessary is this covering of down to their comfort, t>at when placed 



