r802 ckambus contaminellus. 



OilAMBUS CONTAMINELLUS. 



Plate CLX, fig. 8. 



Towards the end of May, 1877, while turning over 

 a stone on muddy earth near a sea-bank, I chanced to 

 find a small larva, which I brought home together 

 with part of a little rigid tuft of grass that was grow- 

 ing close to the stone. The larva was evidently a 

 Gr ambus of a species I had not before seen, and 

 seemed near moulting ; a few days later, having ac- 

 complished its moult within a slight web it had spun 

 around itself and attached to the grass, it began to 

 feed well on the grass, and to fashion its dwelling 

 with more silk into a complete tubular form, and to 

 cover it with frass. 



After watching its progress a little, it was not very 

 difficult to find a few more ; the only real difficulty 

 seemed to consist in finding stones in similar places 

 not already tenanted by ants or other predaceous 

 creatures. However, on the 11th of June following, 

 I fell in with an occasional stone or two that rested 

 on or close to small tufts of Poa maritima and P. 

 borreri, which were, so to say, tenanted by one of 

 these larva?, and in one 1 instance by two of them. 

 When these stones were turned over the tubular 

 gallery, though of no great length, was readily seen 

 attached to the lower whitish sheaths of the grass to- 

 wards the roots, being conspicuous, however small, 

 by its covering of fine greenish frass, or frass and fine 

 grains of earth together, or else partly spun against 

 the stone itself, the sudden removal of which tore open 

 the gallery and the surprised larva dropped out. 



These larvse throve verv w r ell in confinement on 



•j 



growing tufts of the same species of grass planted in 

 a pot, with some of the muddy soil, and surrounded 

 with a few small stones, amongst which they con- 

 structed their galleries, and when full-fed converted 



