92 ACONTIA LUCTUOSA. 



segment has a semilunar dull dark brown plate, 

 through which run conspicuously the dorsal and sub- 

 dorsal pale stripes. 



The pupa is subterranean. (William Buckler ; 

 E.M.M., August, 1868, V, 75.) 



Erastria fuscula. 

 Plate CI, fig. 3. 



To Mr. G. 0. Bignell, of Devonport, my best thanks 

 are due, not only for kindly supplying me with the 

 larva of this species in the autumn of 1873, but also 

 for clearing up what had been the reason of my 

 failing to procure it before. 



One night in the autumn of 1857, the year in which 

 I began collecting, I found a twelve-footed larva 

 walking on the ground, which spun up at once, and, 

 during the next summer, produced E. fuscula. Not 

 having found it on its food, and seeing that the books 

 with one consent gave bramble as the food, for many 

 subsequent years I used to beat the brambles in the 

 same locality, hoping to get more larvae ; and when I 

 could take the moths I used to shut them up with 

 bramble sprays in order to try for eggs. But in 

 neither case were my efforts successful, — and why ? 

 In the autumn of 1873 Mr. Bignell, whilst sweeping 

 herbage at night, took several larvae off a stiff grass, 

 Molinia cserulea, growing in damp places ; these, on 

 examination, he concluded to be E. fuscula, and the 

 following summer proved his conclusion to be correct. 



The secret of our previous puzzle is now out ; one 

 might have beaten brambles for ever without finding 

 a larva. 



The larvae came to me on September 10th, 1873, 

 and spun up by the end of the month ; the moths 

 appeared during the last week of May, 1874. 



The full-grown larva is about three-quarters of an 

 inch long, rather slender, and even in bulk through- 

 out ; the twelfth and thirteenth segments taper a 



