NONAGRIA ELYMI. 39 



earlier proceedings, but at the date above mentioned 

 they were found feeding in that portion of the plants 

 just above the root, where the blades of the grass 

 spring upwards together, overlapping each other for 

 about six inches or so, before they begin to diverge or 

 fall apart, and assume the glaucous hue above the sur- 

 face of the sand in which they grow. Nor when the 

 larvae were full-fed did they change their abode, but 

 spun around them a very slight, though tolerably firm 

 cocoon, with gna wings of their food and particles of 

 " frass," between two blades. The lower end of the 

 cocoon, which was rather pointed, was sometimes 

 mixed with grains of sand, the whole structure in 

 shape being fusiform and about one inch and a quarter 

 in length. Several moths emerged on the 4th of July, 

 at 10 p.m., and made a short flight in my room as 

 soon as their wings were dry, — one on the 8th emerged 

 at midnight, and was ready for flight in a quarter of an 

 hour. 



The full-grown larva was from 1 to If inches in 

 length, not very stout, cylindrical, and uniform in size 

 except at the second segment, which tapered a little 

 anteriorly, the head being still smaller and sometimes 

 retracted into it ; the anal segment also tapered off to 

 a rounded tip, in size about equal to the head. Its 

 skin was plump and smooth, the segmental divisions 

 very moderately incised, and the subdivisions delicately 

 defined, the sides dimpled ; the head and plate behind 

 it, the anterior legs, the anal plate, and the spots were 

 all very shining, the rest of the body without much 

 polish ; it was of a pale flesh-colour, the pulsating 

 dorsal vessel being of a little deeper flesh tint; on 

 each side of this dorsal stripe one could just discern, 

 though very faintly, four transverse bars of a rather 

 deeper tint of the ground colour on each segment, the 

 broadest being in front ; the spiracles were black, and 

 along their region the colouring was paler, more of a 

 whitish- yellow, as though the interior of opaque white- 

 ness showed through the flesh-coloured skin ; the head 



