DEPRESSAKIA BAD1ELLA. 331 



part of the plants had been devoured, and for want of 

 food the larvas had devoured one another, only two 

 escaping the massacre ; one of those had spun up in 

 an earth-covered cocoon, long and narrow; the other 

 was still alive in the larva state ; I tried to get it to 

 feed up on Hawkweed, but in the course of eight days 

 it died. 



On the 4th of July, 1883, I again received four of 

 these larvae from Mr. Fletcher, viz. one 9 mm. long, 

 one 12^ mm. long, very dark red on a dingy green 

 ground, which is seen at the segmental divisions, and 

 in the fine pale rings round the black dots ; another 

 was 19 mm. long, slightly tapering from the third 

 segment to the head, tapering again a little on the 

 twelfth and considerably on the thirteenth segment; 

 the head, the second and anal segments with their 

 plates just as described above from the specimens I 

 received in 1882, but the colouring of the body of a 

 deepish sober green with a darker dorsal pulsating 

 line, the blackish-brown dots appearing very small as 

 their circumscribing pale rings have much faded ; the 

 front plate was deep olive outlined with blackish- 

 brown. One entered the earth on the 4th of July, 

 another I watched burrow into the earth on the 5th. 



Mr. Fletcher tells me that " when young the larva 

 is found on the under-side of leaves of the food-plant. 

 When it is bigger, it makes a tunnel or gallery under 

 the plant on the soil, so that when the rosette of 

 leaves is removed the larva is left behind. I think 

 that this tunnel reaches into the turf beyond the 

 radius of the leaves, as many a little sod cut round 

 the plant comes away without the larva. I found one 

 pupa of odd shape in this gallery." 



"When full-grown the larva often eats out the 

 heart of the plant, and bores down far enough into 

 the root to kill it. While the larva is feeding under 

 the leaves its ravages are conspicuous enough, even 

 while small, as it makes brown marks, which are 

 visible on the upper side of the plant." 



