Insects. 7003 



followed by another of the darker tint ; the spiracles are black ; the 

 belly of the ground-colour, only more yellowish, and marked on each 

 side at the five middle segmental divisions with little groups of fine 

 black dashes and dots. It thrives well on chickweed [Alsine media), 

 being full fed in somewhat less than a month. Whether the moth 

 appears again out-of-doors in the autumn I cannot say, but I bred 

 two or three in my flower-pot about the 20th of August, in the same 

 way autumnal specimens of M. rivata and Anticlea rubidata have been 

 bred in-doors, though I have never seen them on the wing out-of- 

 doors at that time. 



O. M.fiuctuata. One day in July I found, together with six or 

 seven of the (to me common) brown and gray variety of this larva, one 

 that was quite green all over, but with sufficient indications of the 

 dorsal pattern to make me think it was of the same species, as in time 

 it proved to be ; 1 mentioned the circumstance to one of our great 

 men, and was informed that he had never seen any but green larvae of 

 M. fluctuata ; this set me breeding all I could, but out of six or seven 

 broods — certainly not large ones — I succeeded in obtaining but one 

 green larva, which on passing its last moult appeared with a dorsal 

 line of two tints of red, but grew gradually less brilliant, until just 

 before spinning it showed no red at all. 



O. Camptogramma fiuviata. The following dates may prove of 

 interest : a female laid me a batch of eggs on the 27th of July, from 

 which I bred the moths from the 1st to the 10th of September; all 

 their transformations having been passed in an average time of forty 

 days. On the 22nd of August I procured eggs from another female, 

 the moths from which appeared from the 8th to the 11th of October, 

 having thus taken on an average seven or eight days more than the 

 former brood to go through their changes. Since then I have been 

 told of a brood hatched in October, which passed six weeks in the 

 larva state alone, and from which at the time I am writing (December 

 9th) no perfect insects have yet appeared ; also of another brood of 

 larvae, hatched in November, which are still very small, and feeding 

 but slowly. Most of the captured specimens of the moth itself that 

 have come under my notice have occurred near low ground, but I 

 cannot think it an exclusively marsh insect, for both the egg-laying 

 females and the larvae (next season I hope to be able to give the 

 proper name of the food-plant) have been found on the sides of hills, 

 at a considerable elevation above any water. Some of the females 

 have on the fore-wings a dash along the costa, three or four waved 

 strigae, and the ring round the dark spot — all of the ground-colour of 



