MIANA EXPOLITA. 103 



MlANA EXPOLITA. 



Plate LXVIII, fig. 5. 



With much gratification I am able to record the 

 interesting discovery of the larva of M . expolita, and 

 of its food-plant ; a puzzle that had hitherto baffled all 

 attempts at solution has at length been unravelled by 

 the assiduous efforts of Mr. J. Gardner, of Hartlepool, 

 to whose kindness I have been indebted for the oppor- 

 tunities of studying the larva, both in the past and 

 present seasons. 



An attempt to rear this species from the egg was 

 undertaken by the Rev. J. Hellins in 1873, when I 

 received eggs from Mr. J. E. Robson, of Hartlepool, 

 and in this way a record was made of the earlier stages, 

 although but a single larva reached full growth, and 

 that disappeared before the change to a pupa could 

 take place. 



The eggs laid on July 22nd arrived on the 24th, 

 1873 ; the larvae were hatched on August 3rd, and 

 were put into a bottle at first with various grasses, 

 out of which they seemed to choose the garden ribbon- 

 grass, Phalaris arundinacea, var. ; so, in the course 

 of the autumn, they were placed on growing plants of 

 this grass in a flower-pot and put out of doors ; about 

 the middle of October one was extracted from its 

 mine in the stem of this grass, and figured by me ; 

 after hibernation it was again extracted at the end of 

 April, 1874, and again figured and sent back to its food ; 

 but after this it disappeared, and so nothing could be 

 published about it. 



Mr. Gardner kindly sent me a full-grown larva and 

 its food-plant (Car ex glauca) last year, when I first 

 bred this moth ; and this year six larvae, more or less 

 mature, on the 31st of May, and the moths appeared 

 July 13th to 19th. The plants of Car ex were from 

 six to eight inches in height, and the habit of the 

 larva is to eat out the very hea t of the plant, working 



