MAMESTRA FURVA. 83 



the other Xylophasia mentioned by Guenee, I know 

 nothing) ; and I can suggest an explanation of this 

 confusion from two circumstances which happened to 

 myself whilst rearing the larvse, and either of which 

 might have set me quite wrong had I not taken the 

 precaution to rear each example separately. I had 

 been prepared by Mr. Dunsmore to expect ichneu- 

 moned larvae, presenting an abnormal appearance, and 

 amongst my stock I found two, in which the head, 

 plates, and spots were precisely similar in form and 

 appearance to the same features in the healthy larvae, 

 so that no doubt could exist of the species, notwith- 

 standing the size they ultimately attained. One of 

 them, after moulting on the 14th of April, became by 

 the 20th nearly an inch and a half long, and very 

 stout, its skin minutely wrinkled transversely, and of 

 a dull pink colour. On May 2nd I took a second 

 figure of it, for it had changed considerably both in 

 colour and texture of skin, and had grown to be one 

 inch and three-quarters in length, the skin now tense, 

 smooth, and very glossy, of a dirty, somewhat flesh- 

 colour. On the 10th it had invested the bottom of its 

 domed nest under the grass with grains of earth, and 

 lay hidden in a complete cocoon, though very soft and 

 fragile. I opened the cocoon about the middle of 

 July, and found within a large, circular, rather flat- 

 tened mass of light fawn-coloured silk, and in the 

 centre the dark red head-piece of the larva. This 1 

 had scarcely placed on a table and covered with a glass, 

 than there issued from it in quick succession a swarm 

 of Microg aster alvearius, which, perhaps to the number 

 of one hundred, I hastened to destroy with chloroform. 

 The other variety was about an inch and a half in 

 length, of a dark smoky-grey colour above and lurid 

 reddish beneath ; it was more . than once by night 

 observed to be at the tops of the grass nibbling at the 

 seeds. It was figured on the 15th of June and died 

 three days later, about thirty middle-sized ichneumon 

 larvae having eaten their way out of its body. 



