NEPHOPTERYX ABIETELLA. 251 



thread of the ground colour divides the pitchy-blackish 

 plate on the second segment, which is margined in 

 front by a portion of the brown skin next the head. 



Mr. Wood having kindly given me the result of his 

 careful experience with these larvse, I here quote from 

 his advice : 



" I think they do best when the cone is kept on its 

 side, and not standing on end. I have found them 

 so far not difficult to rear. The only time when they 

 want a little management is just after they have shed 

 the last skin, or the last but one ; should they at that 

 time be out of their burrow it is useless then to put 

 them on an ordinary cone, as they will not make any 

 attempt to eat into it, but wander about and would 

 ultimately die. The plan is to get a dry cone and 

 break off some of the scales, so as to leave a rough 

 surface ; as soon as the larva is put upon this all 

 tendency to wander vanishes ; it soon sets about 

 spinning a hiding-place, making it very secure, and 

 taking plenty of time over it, for it is sometimes as 

 much as thirty-six hours before it runs out a little 

 covered way to the fresh cone that has been placed by 

 the side of the other. 



" It seems to be very impatient of exposure, more 

 particularly when left feeble from the process of 

 moulting, for it has been only at this particular time 

 that this care has been required. At an earlier age it 

 is able to creep under a scale, and a few threads 

 will complete the concealment." 



I found the first larva when it left the cone wander 

 about until it died, refusing to attack the fresh cone 

 supplied to it. Mr. Wood then kindly sent me a cone 

 containing two larvse approaching maturity on the 

 12th of September, intimating that I might expect to 

 see one of them out of the cone in about ten days' 

 time in search of a place for spinning up. This was 

 a most exact prognostication, for though I looked 

 daily into the pot after it, and noted with satisfaction 

 the increasing heap of brown frass that steadily 



