112 PLUSIA PULCHRINA. 



or two after, in a light filmy cocoon of silk of a whitish 

 colour, as large as a pigeon's egg and of similar shape, 

 spun to the leno cover and partly to the side of its pot. 

 This cocoon, being very light, was sufficiently trans- 

 parent to allow first the larva and then the form of 

 the pupa to be seen plainly within it, and also the old 

 larval skin next the tail of the pupa. On opening the 

 cocoon, the pupa was found to measure rather more 

 than three-quarters of an inch in length, by nearly a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter at the thickest part. It 

 tapered a little from the thora,x to the head, which was 

 rather produced ; the abdomen was long in proportion, 

 of about equal size, tapering on the last three segments, 

 which, at the end, terminate in a rough knob furnished 

 with a central short spike having two divergent curled 

 tips, and surrounded with four or five shorter curled- 

 tipped bristles ; the antenna-cases and trunk, together 

 with the tips of the wing-covers, are well developed, 

 and end in a triangular projection rather overlapping 

 the abdomen. When opened on the 6th of October, 

 the moth standing over, its colour was black and with- 

 out gloss, dull on the wings, the abdomen very slightly 

 glistening. (William Buckler, October, 1876 ; Note 

 Book, II, 135.) 



Plusia gamma. 



Plate Oil, fig. 8. 



Notes on a probably hitherto undescribed form of the 

 larva of Plusia gamma. — In the middle of July, 1892, Mr. 

 Charles Whitehead, of Maidstone, sent me, on the sug- 

 gestion of Mr. Stainton, three larvae for identification. 

 The note accompanying the larvse stated they were 

 abundant, feeding on clover, nettle, thistle, etc., and 

 that as Plusia gamma had been abundant earlier in the 

 year, Mr. Whitehead thought they must be a form of 

 the larva of that insect, although so totally unlike the 

 ordinary well-known form. On opening the box I saw 



