BBULBA VERBASOALIS. 141 



EBULEA VERBASOALIS. 



Plate CLIV, fig. 2. 



In the ' Entomologists' Weekly Intelligencer,' Vol. 

 10, p. 71, is recorded the first information of Teucrium 

 scorodonia being the food-plant of Ebulea verbascalis, 

 by Mr. McLachlan, who mentions therein the fact of 

 his finding in the autumn of 1860, " larvae, evidently 

 Pyralidae, on this plant," which, with true prophetic 

 instinct, he refers to this species ; from the brief 

 description there given of the characters he observed 

 in those larvae I have the fullest evidence now to offer 

 in proof of the correctness of his judgment. 



Dr. Hofmann, in his ' Kleinschmetterlingsraupen,' 

 published in 1875, quotes first the Vienna Catalogue, 

 wherein Verba scum is given as the food-plant, and, 

 secondly, adds that, according to Rossler, the larva 

 should rather be sought on Teucrium ; Rossler's work 

 is dated 1864 — -1866, four vears after Mr. McLachlan 

 had published his discovery. 



On the 8th of August, 1877, I had the pleasure to 

 receive from my friend Mr. W. R. Jeffrey two dozen 

 eggs of this species, being part of a batch laid a few 

 days before on both sides of some leaves of Teucrium 

 scorodonia, beyond doubt their proper food-plant, 

 which had been ascertained the previous season by 

 Mr. Jeffrey, who on this occasion kept a few of the 

 eggs for himself, with advantage to our object of 

 elucidating the history of this hitherto unknown larva. 



The eggs hatched on the 11th and 12th of August 

 and the young larvae were supplied with Teucrium, on 

 which they soon settled themselves, creeping under 

 the leaves, each one by itself choosing a place whereon 

 to spin a small layer of silk to secure its footing, and 

 soon to convert into a most minute tubular kind of 

 gallery, which, in some instances, slightly united one 

 leaf to another, if they were at all in contact. In a 



