﻿1(34 I December, 



with pieces of leaf in a box to be brought home, although they will make a silken 

 passage at the corner of the box, they always continue to detach sufficient down 

 from the leaf to completely cover the silk, and when about to become pupa3 always 

 cover the cocoon with the same material. 



Sometimes a large plant of the Mullein is so full of larvae that all the young 

 leaves are completely eaten out as fast as they appear, and a curious mass is found 

 on the centre of the plant composed of the down of all these leaves and the excre- 

 ment enclosed, and in this mass the largest larvae generally reside, having galleries 

 through it, but it is never used to assume the pupa state in. When at last, from 

 the older larvae having spun up, the shoot is able to make a start, it carries up 

 with it traces of their ravages in scarred and blackened marks all up its sides 

 which take some time to heal. 



The history of this insect will therefore appear to be : — That the eggs are laid 

 in July and August, in the hearts of seedling plants of Verbascum pulverulenttvm, 

 that part hatch in the autumn, and the rest in the spring ; larvae, consequently, 

 feeding from September or October till July, and the perfect insects appearing from 

 the end of May till August. — Chas. G. Barrett, Norwich, 14-th September, 1869. 



Description of the larva of Hydrcecia micacea. — On the 22nd of June, 1869, 1 

 received from the Honble. T. de Grey, a larva, which proved to be that of this 

 species ; and, more recently, the following note : — 



" I first observed the larva by pulling up, on the 14th May, a sickly -looking 

 " plant of Equisetum arvense. It appeared to be feeding on the root and stem 

 " below the surface of the ground, but, when placed in a bottle with a supply of 

 " the food-plant, it immediately entered a stem, and fed upon the inner substance, 

 " hollowing it completely out, and ejecting the frass at the lower end. 



" The larva moved readily from one piece into another, and throve upon this 

 " food till May 28th, when I supplied it with Equisetum fluviatile, on which it fed 

 " well till June 21st." 



On arrival, this larva was 1-Jg inch in length, rather slender, cylindrical, and 

 tapering just a little at the posterior extremity, its head as wide as the second 

 segment, the upper lip and mandibles large, the transverse folds and segmental 

 divisions rather deeply cut. 



The colour of the back and sides down to the spiracles was a rather deep 

 purplish red-brown, without gloss, and a little paler on the thoracic segments and 

 at the divisions ; the sides below the spiracles, the belly, and the legs were paler, 

 and of a dingy flesh colour : the head ochreous-brown, and mandibles blackish- 

 brown ; a polished pale ochreous-brown semi-circular plate on the second segment, 

 rather broadly margined in front with blackish-brown ; a small shining pale 

 ochreous plate on the anal tip, having a terminal border of very small dark brown 

 warts : the other tubercular warts arranged in the situation usual in stem feeders, 

 also blackish-brown in colour, and emitting each a fine hair ; the spiracles black ; 

 the prolegs tipped with brown. 



At the beginning of July, the larva had attained If inch in length, and had 

 become moderately stout in proportion, having meanwhile gradually grown paler 

 on the back ; and by the 10th of the month, the upper and under surfaces were 



