5144 Insects. 



I shall be much obliged if any collectors will forward to me for 

 examination any doubtful species of Eupithecia which they may meet 

 with, giving the localities and dates of capture. 



I recommend every entomologist to purchase M. Guenee's admi- 

 rable works, and I must express my regret that such oeffhsive and 

 uncalled-for strictures upon them have been published in this country, 

 but I suppose it is too true, that 



" He who surpasses or subdues mankind, 

 Must look down on the hate of those below." 



Henry Doubleday. 

 Epping, May 8th, 1856. 



Some Remarks on the Economy of Omnivorous Lepidopterous Larva. — On a 

 former occasion I brought before the Society * some observations made upon the 

 destruction of corn by different species of Coleoptera, more mischief being done by the 

 weevil tribe than by any other; and my attention being called to the subject, I was led 

 to think that much damage was done by other depredators as well as those at that 

 time mentioned. I accordingly kept the subject in view, and accidentally discovered 

 a large colony of larvae, which I think I may with justice rank second to the weevils, 

 as far as damage to corn is concerned. During the spring of 1855, whilst passing 

 through a corn-loft, my attention was attracted by a quantity of wheat mixed with dust 

 lying on a window-sill, which presented a somewhat unusual appearance, a good deal 

 of it being eaten in a manner totally different from the way the weevils hollow it out, 

 every grain touched having the larger or germinating end just taken off, and neatly 

 rounded. On looking for the cause, I found a great number of small larvae of 

 a whitish colour busily at work consuming the wheat. A few days afterwards, on 

 paying them a second visit, I found them either spinning their webs or preparing to do 

 so; and from the great number of these webs placed so closely together, irregular masses 

 of wheat and dust could be lifted in layers of from one to three inches in thickness. 

 I placed a small quantity in a box, where it remained forgotten until the middle of 

 June or beginning of July, when on opening it, I found that a large number of small 

 moths had made their appearance, and about this time great numbers of similar moths 

 swarmed about the stores and the outbuildings around them. These chrysalises were 

 in colour reddish brown and semi-transparent, and enveloped in an exceedingly tough 

 web or cocoon of a whitish hue. When the larvae do not spin amongst the wheat, they 

 form colonies of these cocoons in a very curious way, as the board which I now 

 exhibit will show : it was found when removing some boarding in an old warehouse, 

 and from the number of cocoons in so small a space an idea may be formed of the 

 multitudes of these moths during the summer season. About a month since, whilst 

 looking for some in a warehouse, I remarked, as I thought, a curious fungus growing 

 from the beams in one end of the loft. I cut a quantity of it away with my knife, and 



* Read at the ordinary Meeting of the Dublin Natural-History Society, on the Hith 

 of May, IH:,(5. 



