CKAMBUS PEDIUOLELLUS. 297 



the growth of the larva, which does not appear ever 

 to leave its abode, but to lengthen it in front, while it 

 moves on in quest of fresh food, so that the bitten-off 

 stem of the plant on which it feeds appears to grow 

 from the mouth of the tube ; the hinder end of this is 

 densely packed with frass of a whity -brownish or 

 greenish colour, and evidently composed of small bits 

 of grass stems scarcely altered by any digestive 

 process. 



The larvse I had in confinement within a pot of 

 sand, furnished with a growing plant of their native 

 food, Triticum junceum, did not, after being turned 

 out of their cases for inspection, spin any new ones, 

 nor did they re-enter their previous abodes, but 

 wandered about, and spun a great quantity of useless 

 web along the sides of the pot at the edge of the sand, 

 and joined some of their deserted tubes together into 

 a tangled mass, and finally contrived to gnaw a hole 

 in their covering of new stiff muslin, and thus escaped. 



The cocoon spun by the full-fed larva, and in which 

 it completes its change to the pupa, is attached to the 

 former opening of its previous residence at right 

 angles, and in a perpendicular position; it varies in 

 length from one to two inches, probably in proportion 

 to the depth of the tube in the shifting sand, though 

 one inch and a half is the average length ; cylindrical, 

 thick as a goose-quill at the top, and a little larger at 

 the bottom, with both ends rounded ; the point of 

 junction with its former abode is nearly midway, but 

 nearer the top than the bottom ; its exterior composed 

 of sand similarly to the tubes, but the well-lined 

 interior is much firmer, and is beautifully smooth with 

 white silk, very tough and strong. 



The pupa is from five to six lines in length, very 

 pale shining brown in colour, and quite of an ordinary 

 slender form, only the wing-covers are seen to be very 

 long in proportion to its size. (William Buckler, 5th 

 October, 1870; E.M.M., December, 1870, VII, 160.) 



