80 MAMESTRA FURVA. 



obligations to Mr. Andrew Wilson, of Edinburgh, 

 who, in 1869, sent me eggs, though at that time, for 

 want of experience, I failed to retain the larvae in health. 



The eggs were sent to me at the end of summer, 

 and the larvae hatched in September. They were very 

 active at once, and seemed anxious to hide under the 

 earth, and presently established themselves at the base 

 of a tuft of grass, and spun together a little earth, 

 frass, and some of the grass-roots for protection, 

 Mr. Dunsmore found the larva? (commencing in the 

 first week in November, when they were but three- 

 sixteenths of an inch long) amongst the roots of Poa 

 trivialis and P. nemoralis, growing from under large 

 stones which capped a turf wall in a hilly district. 

 After I received them, finding it necessary to supply 

 them from time to time with growing food, for they 

 woke up occasionally from hibernation and ate away 

 the heart of the grass shoots close to the root, I tried 

 them with Poa annua, and, to my great convenience, 

 they took to it quite contentedly. During the winter 

 their growth was trifling, but as Mr. Dunsmore con- 

 tinued to send me fresh examples at intervals of time, 

 which were always smaller than those I had been keep- 

 ing previously, I drew the conclusion that in the colder 

 climate of their northern habitat their hibernation was 

 more complete, and that there during winter they pro- 

 bably did not quit the smooth, silk-lined, oval nests or 

 chambers which they constructed — each for itself — by 

 spinning together the grass roots. After the middle 

 of May I saw these nests were made less carefully, 

 being no more than dome-covered hollows, out of 

 which they came every night and fed, generally, as 

 before, close to the grass roots, but sometimes on the 

 panicles of seeds, becoming full fed during the first 

 half of June; they then turned to pupae, without making 

 any cocoon whatever, but loose in the peaty soil under 

 the grass, and between July 1st and 14th I bred six 

 imagos, all males. 



The egg oifurva is small, dome-shaped, ribbed, and 



