192 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



B has a reddish head and horn, no stripe on the back 

 or sides, but a conspicuous series of ten yellow spots on 

 each side. 



C has a black head and horn ; no trace of the dorsal or 

 lateral stripes, or of the circular paler spots. 



All three agree in having numerous white dots in the 

 neighbourhood of the spiracles, which are very light-coloured ; 

 the 2nd segment has something like a dorsal plate, which is 

 pitchy red : the ventral flap and claspers are of the same 

 colour : all have a yellowish- white labrum, and the base of the 

 antennal papillae of the same colour. 1 am indebted to 

 Mr. Alfred Owen of Liverpool, and Mr. Mawson of Cocker- 

 mouth, for these larvae. — Edward Newman. 



Contribution towards a Life-History of Polia nigrocincta. 

 — The moth emerges from the chrysalis in August and Sep- 

 tember ; and no doubt makes proper provision for the continua- 

 tion of its kind ; but whether it oviposits in these months, or 

 hybernates in the perfect state, copulating and ovipositing in 

 the spring, and again, supposing the e%g laid in August and 

 September, whether it survives the winter in that state, as 

 suggested by Freyer, or is hatched and hybernates as an 

 immature larva, as conjectured by Mr. Gregson, — I have no 

 evidence whatever : it is certain that our positive knowledge 

 of them in the Isle of Man commences in the early summer of 

 the following year, when they are found of small size about 

 the roots of Statice armeria by day, or the blossoms by night : 

 they also sometimes ascend the stems of other plants. In 

 confinement they feed exclusively on the flowers of the 

 thrift ; but, in a state of nature, they possibly eat the leaves 

 of other plants of the rocky coast of the Isle of Man, for, 

 without doubt, they have been found at rest on the stalks of 

 grasses, Silene maritima, and other littoral plants. When 

 young they are of a semi-transparent pale green colour, but 

 as they approach maturity they gradually assume a deeper 

 tint and the markings 1 am about to describe. When ap- 

 proaching maturity, the larva prefers to conceal itself by day 

 among faded flowers or other rubbish at the bottom of the 

 glass or galhpot in which it may be kept, and ascends in the 

 evening to the almost spherical flower-heads, holding the 

 stalk firmly with its claspers, and concealing its head and 

 anterior segments among the pink corollas: when handled or 



