APAMEA FIBROSA. 95 



who assigned to fibrosa the flower-stems of Iris pseuda- 

 corus, I yet may venture to say there seems to me but 

 little doubt that this conclusion may probably have 

 been drawn from an aberrant example, as latterly in 

 England there had come to be a consensus of opinion 

 that it could not be found in those stems. 



But, however that may have been, it is now certain 

 that I had the great pleasure to receive this larva from 

 Mr. Fletcher on the 1st of July, 1883, being one of 

 several Mr. Houghton had a day or two before sent to 

 him, and these were supplemented with further 

 examples, and on the 21st Mr. Fletcher most kindly 

 presented me with one of the pupae which had resulted 

 from them. 



Of course I tended the larva most assiduously with 

 fresh, but substitute, food, from the most likely aquatic 

 plants I could find, including at first Sparganium, Iris, 

 and Gar ex, giving it the lower part of each next the 

 root ; but it persistently refused the first two named, 

 and ate only of Carex paludosa, and very sparingly of 

 that, as though not quite to its taste. Yet, seeing it 

 eat, I was hopeful the first three or four days of rear- 

 ing it, but was soon undeceived, as just within a week 

 it died of atrophy, after vainly wandering about in 

 quest of its proper food-plant, the great fen sedge, 

 Cladium mariscus. 



Mr. Houghton was led to his discovery of the larva 

 by observing that when the crop of this sedge had 

 been cut and removed there were some of these plants 

 that had not pushed out fresh shoots, and looked as 

 though dead in the middle. These on being closely 

 examined proved to be tenanted by the larvce, whose 

 ravages had thus betrayed them to him, and from the 

 experience subsequently gained he arrived at the con- 

 clusion that each larva had ravaged about nine or ten 

 shoots of Cladium before it was fed up. 



When the Cladium is mown, the situation of the 

 larva is found to average a distance of about an inch 

 and three-quarters below the cut surface, where the 



