114 STERRHA SACRARIA. 



these went to the Rev. John Hellins, one of the larvae 

 disappeared when very young, and the other seven- 

 teen progressed very satisfactorily until they were 

 full-fed ; up to this time they looked perfectly well 

 and healthy. Two of them spun np and changed to 

 fine healthy-looking pupge, in which state they now 

 are ; about eight more spun up and died in the web, 

 and the others died, without any apparent reason, 

 without spinning. 



I rather fear the food (Polygonum aviculare) which 

 I gave them on Friday, October 4th, was touched with 

 frost, as we had a very sharp frost on the nights of 

 the 3rd and 4th ; but whether that can have been 

 enough to kill them I hardly know. The plants did 

 not then exhibit any symptoms of being frost-bitten, 

 or, indeed, at all differ outwardly from the food we 

 were supplying regularly ; but the frost then was 

 undoubtedly sharp, and many plants felt it. 



My gardener, who has charge of my larvae when I 

 am from home, is a very careful hand, and an excellent 

 practical entomologist. (John T. D. Llewelyn. 20th 

 October, 1867; E.M.M., December, 1867, IV, 153.) 



I am sorry that I can report no better success than 

 Mr. Llewelyn with this species. The larvae he so gene- 

 rously sent me fed up well, and all began to spin; 

 two died without becoming pupae, while the rest com- 

 pleted the change ; and, had they behaved as satis- 

 factorily as the famous half-dozen in 1865, they would 

 have appeared in the perfect state during the latter 

 half of October, but up to this date not an imago has 

 emerged. I have examined two of my cocoons, and 

 found dead pupae in them ; most likely there is nothing 

 better in the rest, but with a lingering, desperate hope 

 I am keeping them on in a room with a fire, un- 

 willing to destroy the least chance there may yet exist 

 of seeing a moth. 



Mr. Llewelyn's brood were hatched two or three 

 days earlier in August than the 1865 brood ; but on 

 reference to a daily register of the temperature here 



