26 LEUOANIA LITTORALIS. 



longitudinal stripes, assimilating closely to the under- 

 side of the almost cylindrical blades of their food- 

 plant ; after April they leave their hiding-places and 

 burrow beneath the sand, having by this time con- 

 siderably increased in size, and having also become 

 much paler in tint, some individuals being almost 

 whitish green, others of a pale flesh colour. (W. B., 

 B.M.M., I, 48, 1864.) 



Leucania comma. 

 Plate LIX, fig. 3. 



Having for several seasons searched in vain during 

 the spring for the larva of Leucania comma, I this 

 summer, towards the end of June, obtained eggs from 

 a female, which deposited them in a cluster on a tuft 

 of Dactylis glomerata, at the axil of the sheath round 

 a stem. In a fortnight they hatched, and for the first 

 few days the larvae were exceedingly active and rest- 

 less, crawling over the grass, spinning threads, and 

 suspending themselves from the tops of their food ; 

 after their first moult they settled well down to their 

 food, and excepting in very bright sunshine, did not 

 seem to shun the light. They had enormous appetites, 

 and devoured the greater part of three large tufts of 

 the grass, eating always from the top downwards. 

 They did not increase in size after the 10th of August, 

 but continued to feed nearly to the end of the month, 

 when they retired an inch and a half below the surface 

 of the earth, close to the roots of the plant, and spun 

 silken cocoons with a slight covering of earth. On 

 removing these on the 5th September one was broken 

 (a proof of their fragile texture), and the larva was coiled 

 up within alive, and looking rather smaller and darker 

 than before it had spun. 



The larvae were striped longitudinally, and bore a 

 very strong resemblance to their congeners, impura, 

 jpallens, lithargyrea, 2^id.jpudorina. They were reddish- 



