ACIDALIA EMUTARIA. 125 
reeds which line the sides of the dykes. This locality 
would point to some marsh plant being its natural 
food, but we reared our larve in confinement upon 
Medicago lupulina, Lotus corniculatus, and Polygonum 
aviculare. 
My larve hatched on the 22nd of July, 1866; 
hybernated when about one-third grown; began to 
feed again about the end of February, 1867; moulted 
twice during April and May; spun up in the second 
week of June; and the moths appeared on the 7th and 
10th of July, full-sized specimens, and one of them 
especially deserving Haworth’s name of subroseata. 
The eggs are of an elongated pear-shape, the stalk- 
end being cut off flat. (N.B.—I notice that the eggs of 
several species of Acidalia exhibit this truncated form 
at one or both ends.) ‘They are ribbed longitudinally, 
and finely punctured; when first laid their colour is 
pale bluish-green, afterwards changing to a straw- 
colour with spots and irregular splashes of pink. 
The little slender larvee, when first hatched, are pale 
greenish, with pinkish heads, afterwards becoming 
very plainly coloured—pale ochreous-grey, with a few 
dingy black lines and markings. 
One of my four larve died early in winter, but the 
other three bore the cold very well; whilst in the 
same outhouse the extreme frost slew some of the 
more tender species of hybernating larvee—Agrotis 
ripe and A. lunigera, for example. I had one fright 
about them, however. One has heard of the grass 
srowing under the feet of a sluggard, and it is a 
fact that during the winter, while they were resting 
almost as motionless as the withered stalks of their 
food, two of my three larve became decidedly tinged 
with bright green, and, on examination with a lens, I 
found that this tint was caused by the young growth 
of a species of moss! (Tortula — ?). 
However, it luckily proved to be less than skin 
deep, and was without difficulty got rid of at the first’ 
spring moult. 
