ODONTIA DBNTALIS. 21 



The cocoons were formed by drawing together the 

 withered leaves of the food-plant, Echium vulgare. 

 From them I reared a beautiful series of the moth. 

 (George T. Porritt, Note Book, 1868.) 



PYRALIS FARINALIS. 



Plate CXLIX, fig. 2. 



In his prefatory remarks on Pyralis, Guenee wrote 

 that nothing showed the negligence of entomologists 

 more plainly than their ignorance of the meta- 

 morphoses of the species placed by him in that genus ; 

 and, to say nothing of the appearance of Pyralis 

 farinalis in one's house, certainly to see the moth, as 

 I have done, sitting by hundreds on the walls of a 

 mill, one would think it was easy enough to find the 

 larva; yet the late William Buckler, living in a 

 house with a flour mill attached to it, met with con- 

 siderable difficulty in obtaining the larva of this 

 " Muhlgangler," as Dr. E. Hofmann calls it; it was 

 not to be found on the floors, but had to be hunted 

 out very carefully under projecting ledges of portions 

 of the machinery, where it could form its galleries in 

 safety. He obtained a few examples also from a 

 stable, where they were feeding in company with 

 Aglossa piiiguinalis on mixed rubbish, well hidden 

 under an oat-bin. 



Pyralis farinalis may fairly be called a domestic 

 insect, and, contrary to the more common lot of 

 Lepidoptera, it has rather profited than otherwise from 

 human progress, as one can scarcely conceive of any 

 natural collection of seeds or stalks which would 

 nourish it in such numbers as may now be seen. 



The moth, I know, begins to appear towards the 

 end of June, and continues its flight through July 

 and August. The larva apparently is hatched in less 

 than a month after the egg has been laid, and, as Mr. 

 Buckler told me he had satisfactorily ascertained, 



