7284 Insects. 



e. Oftinino perminutum exemplum circiter 6 lineae in expansione 

 alarum; abdomine pariter lato per totuni, margine posteriore 

 omnium segmentorum annulato ex albido praeter postrerao ? . 



J. J. Reading. 



Plymouth, October 19, 1860. 



Description of the Larva of Thyatira derasa. — EoUs in a ring when touched. 

 Cylindrical, rather stouter anteriorly, velvety and somewhat transparent. Colour red- 

 dish brown, with a slender median black stripe, and a circular conspicuous white spot 

 on each side of the 5th segment, sometimes a smaller while spot in the same position 

 on each side of the 6th and 7th segment: the belly is much paler than the back : the 

 spiracles are black. Feeds on Bubus fruticosus (bramble), and is full fed on the 12lh 

 October. I am indebted to Mr. Thomas Huckett for this larva, as well as for most 

 of those which follow. — Edward Newman. 



Description of the Larva of Ceropacha flavicornis. — Head pale wainscot-brown, 

 with a black spot on each cheek near the mouth. Body dingy yellowish green, the 

 2nd segment having six black spots, all of them close adjoining the bead, the 

 two dorsal ones larger than the rest ; on each of the following segments are five black 

 spots, the largest of which constitute a dorsal series, the second, smaller, constitute a 

 supra-spiracular series, and the third, the smallest, an infra-spiracular series ; each of 

 the larger black spots has a row of three white dots above it and one white dot below ; 

 the 3rd and 4lh segments have a transverse band or belt of twelve white dots. 

 It feeds on Betula alba (the birch) of which it rolls up the leaves into a kind of case, 

 and only comes partially out to eat: it is almost impossible to beat this larva: 

 in order to obtain it, the rolled-up leaves must be sought out and picked : full fed the 

 10th July.— 7<i. 



Description of the Larva of Dipthera Orion. — Whilst staying in Hampshire this 

 summer I took a single female D. Orion. As she was slightly worn and chipped I kept 

 her in the hope of obtaining eggs, and was not disappointed. These in due time 

 hatched, and the young larvae fed well till their last moult, on birch. They then without 

 any apparent reason began to die oflF. I introduced some oak twigs, for which the biirch 

 was immediately deserted, but out of a numerous brood 1 only succeeded in obtaining 

 four pupae. I am inclined to think that in a stale of nature this larva feeds indiscrimi- 

 nately upon oak and birch, wandering from one to the other. I never but once beat 

 the larva; this was in Suffolk, where I thrashed two out of a birch bush in a wood 

 near Ipswich, and thence it was that I fed my young larvae at first solely on that tree. 

 The following description of the larva may be acceptable to the readers of the 

 'Zoologist ' : — Back bluish black. On the fourth, sixth and ninth segmental divisions 

 a large primrose-yellow blotch, and smaller ones of the same colour on the third and 

 anal segments. On the second and third segments the rudiments of two central 

 primrose-yellow dorsal lines. Dorsal and lateral segmental divisions girt with a belt 

 of orange and primrose-yellow tubercles surmounted by tufts of pale reddish hair. 

 Subdorsal lines primrose-yellow, interrupted and studded with various sized primrose- 



