EUPITHEC1A INNOTATA. 35 



EUPITHECIA INNOTATA. 



Plate CXXXVI, fig. 6. 



An Enigma. — In October, I860, I beat for the first 

 time a number of the larvae of Ewpitliecia succenturiata 

 from Artemisia vulgaris. This plant is rather abun- 

 dant on one side of Exeter, but, as happens so often 

 with species that feed on some tree or plant of common 

 occurrence, the locality for the pugs is very limited in 

 extent, and except on two sides of one field it is in 

 vain to hunt for them, however tempting the mugwort 

 may appear in other hedges. This spot I have visited 

 in most years, but with varying success ; latterly the 

 greater care of the farmer in keeping his hedges pared 

 has a good deal injured one's sport, and sometimes it 

 has been difficult to get even a couple of larvae, where 

 twenty years ago fifty or sixty could be got easily. 

 Together with E. succenturiata there have always been 

 a few E. absinthiata, and now and again (of course) 

 E. castigata, also stray examples of Hemithea thymiaria, 

 and one or two other geometers ; but last year (1883) 

 there turned up what the late Mr. Buckler termed a 

 " puzzler." I had sent him without examination the 

 whole of my first take from the mugwort, bnt when, 

 at his desire, I went a second time, and the larvae had 

 grown bigger, I found amongst my captures one that 

 I could not determine ; so when I sent it on I called 

 his attention specially to it. In his reply he told me 

 he had already detected a similar larva in the first 

 consignment, which he had placed by itself for obser- 

 vation, and that he had at length come to the con- 

 clusion that it was something he had seen once before, 

 but did not know what to call it. Dr. Knaggs had on 

 one occasion sent him this larva (I presume from 

 somewhere on the south coast), but the moth had not 

 been bred. 



For a time, therefore, we were very pleased at our 



