SCOPULA PRUNALIS. 169 



them ; hence, as an enigma to be solved, their identifi- 

 cation stood over to the following season. 



For this purpose in 1877 my good friend, again in 

 October, found and kindly sent me five examples of 

 these little larvae, when I was prepared with a potted 

 plant of Galeobdolon luteam for a better attempt to 

 rear them to maturity, and this, greatly to my satis- 

 faction, I was just able to do, and breed the moth on 

 the 18th of June, 1878. 



In October the larva varies in length from three- to 

 four- or five-sixteenths of an inch, is slightly fusiform, 

 with a very pale translucent faintly greenish body, 

 the head black, a small black mark on each side of 

 the collar or second segment ; it is found in a silken 

 spinning under the turned-down edge of a leaf. 



The larvae were placed openly on the plant and left 

 to take care of themselves ; they moulted during 

 November, and then showed very faint whitish sub- 

 dorsal stripes, and, apparently without feeding, soon 

 spun up in white silken hibernacula securely attached 

 beneath the edges of the leaves. 



As January, 1878, proved comparatively mild, and 

 the plant was kept sheltered in a window, I was not 

 at all surprised to see one or two of the larvae occa- 

 sionally on the under-side of the leaves, nibbling little 

 channels out of the lower cuticle, causing a change of 

 colour on the upper surface and betraying their situa- 

 tions ; but as much colder weather set in during 

 March, not one could be observed for many days until 

 near the end of the month, when I detected one 

 feeding, and soon after found another laid up in a 

 slight web between two leaves waiting to moult — 

 though it failed in the operation eventually and died ; 

 while the other, the only one left on the plant, soon 

 left its shelter under a large leaf, after eating a couple 

 of holes through the substance, and took possession 

 of the under- side of a smaller and fresher leaf. It was 

 now from a quarter to three-eighths of an inch long, 

 the head black as in autumn, the body paler ; here it 



