18 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



found elsewhere. The larva feeds on the unripe seeds of Silene 

 maritima^ from June to August; and the moth, though only 

 single-brooded, is on the wing for the greater part of the same 

 period. There has been much discussion as to the claims of this 

 insect to be considered a species distinct from D. carpophaga, 

 some of the darker varieties of which from Scotland approach 

 cnpsophila, both in form and colour. The larvae of carpophaga 

 and capsophila, like the perfect insect, differ principally in colour, 

 capsophila in both cases being the darker. The larvse of cap- 

 siiicola and conspersa are, however, equally difficult to separate, 

 and their slight variations in the larval state seem to be charac- 

 teristic of the Dianthoecise, and alone are insufficient to enable us 

 to discriminate the species. Some may suppose that the common 

 origin of the various species of the genus is indicated by these 

 slight differences in the larval state ; but for the purpose of 

 classification carpophaga and capsophila seem to me to be abun- 

 dantly distinct, and must be so recorded." To the above I 

 would add, that I have taken this moth on Rathlin I., off our 

 northern coast, so early as May 15th, and sometimes elsewhere as 

 late as September. This habit seems conformable to that of the 

 food-plant, which, according to its exposure, blooms from May to 

 September. The larvse of the later broods also hybernate, and I 

 have dug them out of the sand-hills on April 10th, apparently 

 almost full-fed. Probably therefore the moth is often double- 

 brooded. Mr. Porritt took larvse in June of all stages of growth, 

 and many of these produced imagines in August following. The 

 larvse not only feed on the capsules and flowers, but when neither 

 of these are available, on the leaves of the Silene. I have no 

 proof that they ever resort to the roots. When more than half- 

 fed, they bury themselves in the sand, or loose debris under the 

 plant by day, and feed only at night. Since the publication of 

 Birchall's 'Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Ireland' in 1866, 

 I have taken this species in twelve of our littoral counties ; Mayo 

 and Sligo being the exceptions, doubtless owing to my not having 

 worked those coasts ; and have bred great numbers from the 

 larval stage. I have had but few larvse of carpophaga to compare 

 with them, but, from these and Buckler's figure of full-fed 

 specimens, have come to the conclusion that in the last stage 

 those of D. capsophila differ from the former in losing the dark 

 subdorsal and side stripes. They then become an almost 

 unicolorous dirty yellow, with only very faint traces of stripes, 

 but with the dorsal circulatory canal distinctly perceptible. The 

 young larvse also are not uniform in appearance, the stripes 

 varying greatly in their intensity in different examples. Out of 

 all the imagines I have bred from the Irish coast, I never saw a 

 single one which approached D. carpophaga in colour sufficiently 

 to raise an honest doubt. But I have taken faded brownish 

 specimens more than once, which were very near to the Pembroke 



