ACENTROPUS NIVEUS. Ill 



pale ring; and the tip of the abdomen was orange- 

 brown. (William Buckler, July, 1874 ; Note Book II, 

 90.) 



On the 8th of August, 1881, I received from Lord 

 Walsingham some leaves of Polygonum amphibium, of 

 the aquatic form, together with dead moths of 

 Acentropus niveus, male and female, both winged and 

 apterous, and on examination I found about eight 

 eggs had been laid in a line along the very edge at 

 the side of a leaf, and on the under-side of another leaf 

 was a neat little group of four more, and two single 

 eggs near. 



These eggs were roundish-oval but somewhat pear- 

 shaped; subsequently I found a very numerous batch 

 of extremely small eggs laid close together; they 

 appeared to be oval in shape. 



Afterwards Lord Walsingham sent me more of the 

 Polygonum with numerous [specimens] of these minute 

 eggs, and some of the above-mentioned, and also some 

 others quite different and larger. 



On the 16th of August I received from Mr. W. R. 

 Jeffrey three full-grown examples of the larva, which 

 a few weeks before he had taken with some water- 

 weed from a part where he had observed some 

 remains of these insects in a canal near Ashford, and 

 after a little time he observed one of these larvae in 

 his aquarium, when on searching he found two others, 

 and that they were feeding, the first on Hydrocharis 

 morsus-range, the others on Ceratophyllum demersum 

 and Potamogeton crispus between united leaves, and he 

 kindly sent them off the same afternoon to me. On 

 the 17th I figured the largest, both magnified and 

 life size. I had to divest it of some Potamogeton 

 pectinatus, which it had spun together in the morning, 

 and after completing my figures I left it for half an 

 hour, and on returning found it very much changed, 

 its liveliness gone, a sleepy torpor pervading it, its 

 transparency less and giving way to a more opaque 

 appearance, as though some change was drawing near ; 



