Insects. 6999 



Nonagria Typlioi. The pupae occurred in vast numbers this 

 summer in some railway cuttings in my neighbourhood ; in fact, it 

 was hard to find a plant of Typha not tenanted by one of them. 

 It appears to me that the larvae — unless they leave the leaf-stem in 

 which they have been feeding to spin up in an old mace-stem — make 

 their cocoon in their mine just below the point where the flags begin 

 to spread apart from one another ; by cutting out, therefore, seven or 

 eight inches of the flag-stem at this part the pupae may be collected 

 rapidly and safely, without the trouble or risk of opening the flags to 

 see where they are ; and by being kept in their cocoons they are pre- 

 served fiom the danger of drying up : I lost but three out of twenty- 

 four ; that is, only one in eight — a very small proportion. 



Agrotis Ripad. From twenty to thirty larvae, collected on sand-hills 

 in September, 1858, 1 bred on the 10th of June, 1859, a single Agrotis, 

 which proved to be a fine dark variety of this species. Why the rest 

 died is a puzzle, for they were kept out of doors in a large pot full of 

 sand, and fed on growing plants of hound's tongue, the food on which 

 they were found ; however, as A. valligera and A. Tritici, though 

 captured in May and kept in sand, and fed on growing plants, lose 

 three-fourths of their numbers before ihe perfect insects appear in 

 August and September, 1 suppose this dying off" is a family failing. 

 The larva from which A. Ripae came may be thus described : — 

 Ground-colour very variable, from a light pea-green to a yellowish 

 gray (one larva I noticed, which, like Richard the Second's fops, 

 rejoiced in being green for half his length and gray the other half) ; 

 dorsal line a deep tint of the ground-colour, enclosing a very thin light 

 line ; thr.e fine waved subdorsal lines, not quite so dark as the dorsal, 

 and placed close together just above the spiracles ; spiiacles black, 

 and placed in a band rather darker than the ground-colour ; spots 

 dark and shining ; head and plate of second segment pale brown, I 

 think some of these larvae hybernate in the sand at a depth of several 

 inches ; they give over feeding by the end of October. 



Dianth(Bcia carpopliaga. This larva, which those who have gardens 

 can feed on the seeds of rose campion [Lychnis Caeli-rosa ?), has 

 swarmed this summer ; one could not a pick a dozen flowers of Silene 

 inflata w'ithout finding their traces, and from one little patch I shook 

 out scores of them, mixed with D. Cucubali, D. capsincola and Eupi- 

 thecia venosata. 



DianlhdBcia Cucubali. Must be partially double-brooded ; 1 bred 

 the perfect insect in June, 1859, from larvae taken in September, 1858, 

 and again on the 24th of July, from larvae taken on the Gth of the same 



