CBAMBUS PINETELLUS. 311 



Of the larvae, I found, on pulling the tuft to pieces, 

 two about a quarter of an inch long, and one about 

 half an inch, alive, and all three alike in colour and 

 markings ; there were also a dozen or more of dead 

 larvas varying from one-eighth to one quarter of an 

 inch in length. They had been living in little silken 

 cases, constructed vertically amongst the grass in the 

 dense tuft, about three inches above the roots, and 

 outside these cases were little collections of frass 

 adhering to them, evidently consisting of finely com- 

 minuted grassy particles. Many of these dwellings 

 still held their small defunct tenants, but in some 

 instances they were just outside of them. 



After all the living shoots had been picked out and 

 replanted, the tuft became reduced from its original 

 diameter of five inches to no more than two inches ; I 

 now replaced the three living larvse on the Eriophorum, 

 and soon found them engaged in spinning fresh 

 habitations for themselves; they began by uniting two 

 or three blades together, and spinning beneath them 

 a somewhat cylindrical case of greyish web, perpen- 

 dicularly attached to the grass on which they fed. 

 From the necessity of keeping the plant growing, I 

 was unable to secure the larvae from wandering for 

 some few days, and during that time two of them 

 escaped. On searching for them on the 21st of May, 

 when the grass seemed dead, I found but one remain- 

 ing ; for this individual I provided a small piece of 

 the root-stock of Air a csespitosa, having three or four 

 blades sprouting from it, and after a day or two I had 

 the satisfaction to find that it had made a new case 

 and was feeding ; on the 28th, a fresh piece of Aira 

 csespitosa was supplied, and afterwards others at 

 intervals of seven days up to the 21st of June, when I 

 found it had spun itself up within the sheaths of the 

 grass in a neat little chamber, smoothly lined with 

 white silk, and covered outside with particles of 

 gnawed grass ; though I had rudely torn it open, yet 

 it set to work immediately to repair the damage, and 



