76 ASTHENA BLOMERI. 
of them, together with information as to every kind 
of green thing that grew in their locality; when, 
therefore, the larvee hatched, they were supplied with 
leaves of all the trees and plants which had been sug- 
gested, but they would touch none of them; we then 
thought of lichens, and supplied them also, but with 
no better success; all our young larve died of star- 
~ vation. 
However, in September Mr. Grigg visited the 
locality again, and, after a good deal of hard work, 
succeeded in beating from some wych elms growing 
there a large number of geometers; most of them 
proved to be Abraxas ulmata, but with them were 
several others of a smaller species, which, from their 
likeness to the larva of Venusia cambrica, gave us | 
oreat hopes. They were, however, horribly ichneu- 
moned, nine out of every ten being thus infested ; but, 
luckily, some three or four sound ones were secured, 
and this summer all doubt was removed by their ap- 
pearing in the imago state as A. blomert. 
Being now sure of the food, Mr. Grigg again pro- 
cured eggs this summer, and generously halved his 
supply with me; but the young larve in confinement 
are so abominably restless and obstinate, that, although 
I had considerably more than a hundred eggs, I have 
been able to rear barely twenty-five larvae, and Mr. 
Grigg not so many. No wonder we failed with them 
last season, when together with wych elm we gave 
them so many other sorts of food to choose from, for 
now, with nothing but the wych elm leaves in their 
bottle, I found they would not feed at all, but would 
continually crawl to the light, and entangle themselves 
together till they were starved; at last I shut them 
up with some twigs in a large tin box, making the 
cover quite secure by stuffing cotton wool all round, 
and left them to themselves for some days, and in this 
way I managed to rear the number above mentioned. 
This year (1874) the eggs were laid on July 9th and 
llth, the larve hatching on the 18th and following 
