40 APLECTA OCCULTA. 



shire, forwarded me part of a batch of eggs laid 

 altogether in a heap by a female moth he had im- 

 prisoned for the purpose ; the eggs were laid two and 

 even three deep in parts of the heap ; they hatched on 

 the 27th and 28th of the month, and the larvae were 

 reared, some to full growth, by the end of October, 

 pupating in November, and others again at the end of 

 January, 1870 ; the remainder of the brood continued 

 to look well until the end of February, when a death 

 or two occurred, and through March they died off 

 rapidly, the last dying during the first week of April, 

 when about one-third grown ; a fatality also attended 

 the pupae, as no imago resulted from them. 



The attainment of the final metamorphosis, com- 

 pleting the history of A. occulta, I owe to the kindness 

 of Mr. J. B. Blackburn, who on his return from 

 Rannoch presented me, on August 29th, 1874, with 

 twenty young larvae, then between two and three 

 weeks old, which he had reared from eggs laid by a 

 very black female captured there. Some of these 

 soon outstripped their companions in growth, the 

 earliest changing to a pupa on September 22nd, and 

 others at intervals up to December 4th; and from 

 some of these four moths were bred on October 13th, 

 November 23rd, December 7th and 22nd, respectively, 

 four pupae still remaining. 



Of the larvae that continued to hibernate quite 

 small up to the middle of March, 1875, I have been 

 unable to save any ; for after moulting twice they 

 seemed too weak to feed, and died mere empty skins, 

 the last on the 6th of April about three-fourths grown. 



The food on which Mrs. Hutchinson reared her 

 larva was heather, bramble, sallow, and Bumex crispus ; 

 and to those reared from eggs I at first gave Poly- 

 gonum aviculare, though their first meal was on the 

 egg-shells,, which they totally devoured ; afterwards 

 they had, besides the Polygonum, sallow and heather, 

 birch and bramble, Vinca major and Bumex pulcher, 

 and the last larvae from Mr. Blackburn were fed on 



