348 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



larva is remarkably sluggish in its habits, and decidedly 

 objects to undertake a journey if food can be got otherwise. 

 So, on this luckless bush, the swarm settled down, for to it, 

 in the poet's words, — 



' " they rolled in heaps, and up the tree 



ClimbiDg, sat thicker than the snaky locks 

 That curled Megaera." 



Left undisturbed, by way of experiment, they swept off 

 leaves, buds, blossoms, and finally devoured the bark and 

 even the wood of the young twigs. It was only when this 

 bush was nearly bare that the larvae began to file off towards 

 other bushes; and a process of hand-picking, at this crisis, 

 resulted speedily in the destruction of several hundreds. It 

 was noticeable, however, that in some other places, as, for 

 instance, at Clapham, in Surrey, only a few miles off, there 

 were rather fewer than usual of grossulariata about. — J. R. S. 

 Clifford. 



Description of the Larva of Eupithecia irriguata, — Long, 

 slender, and tapering slightly towards the head ; ground 

 colour dull yellowish green ; skin rather rough and wrinkled ; 

 central dorsal line dull rusty red, very indistinct, except on 

 the capital and caudal segments, enlarged on the centre of 

 the median dorsal segments into a somewhat conspicuous 

 elliptic blotch ; subdorsal and spiracular lines yellowish, 

 the latter very faint; head rusty red; belly greenish, without 

 markings. Feeds on oak ; full fed middle of June. Much 

 resembles the larva of E. exiguata and consignata, being 

 exactly intermediate between the two. I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Mrs. Hutchinson, of Grantsfield, and Mr. Buckler, 

 of Emsworth, for the opportunity of describing this almost 

 unknown larva. It was bred from the eg^ by this most 

 indefatigable of fair entomologists ; and Mr. B. has, with his 

 usual skill, secured a life-like figure. A few years since my 

 friend Mr. Wratislaw, of Bury St. Edmunds, bred several 

 perfect specimens of this beautiful pug from larva? beaten 

 from oak, at Hunstanton, in Norfolk. — H. Harpur Crewe ; 

 Tlie Rectory, Drnyton-Beaucliamp^ Tring, June 19, 1871. 



Acroiiyctd Alni at Birmingham. — On the 31st of July, last 

 year, my brother had the good fortune to take the larva of 

 A. Alni. A friend of ours, Mr. W. R. Shrosbree, gave us 



