PLUSIA GAMMA. 115 



the larvse at the time of the pupal change. Only three 

 individuals assumed the perfect state, the remainder 

 of the larvse having died without spinning up, although 

 constantly supplied with fresh food. Two specimens 

 emerged on the 16th of August, and one later, but all 

 were very diminutive, and had the same pale silvery 

 appearance that struck Mr. Porritt. Two by accident 

 escaped, but the third specimen is now in the cabinet. 

 I may be mistaken, but I fancied that the usual at- 

 tenuated character of the front segments of the larva 

 of PI. gamma was absent in mv individuals. (J. 0. 

 Miller, 1st October, 1892; E.MJML, November, 1892, 

 XXVIII, 287.) 



Plusia interrogations. 

 Plate Oil, fig. 9. 



On the 9th of June, 1869, I had the pleasure of 

 receiving the larva, nearly full-fed, of this pretty 

 species from Dr. F. Buchanan White, who had taken 

 several in Inverness-shire, and who during the pre- 

 vious autumn had swept up a few young examples 

 from heather in Ross-shire, four of which he kindly 

 sent to me in October. These were barely one-third 

 of an inch long, and presented the same pattern as 

 the mature larva, being of a full green colour with the 

 subspiracular stripe of sulphur-yellow very conspicu- 

 ous. They fed occasionally on heather till the end of 

 November, and rested on the stems in a curved pos- 

 ture. Only one, however, lived on to nearly the end 

 of March, and was then half an inch long, and, no 

 young shoots appearing on the heather, it fed a little 

 on a blade of grass and sallow catkin ; but one morn- 

 ing I had the mortification of seeing it hang lifeless 

 from a stem. 



The full-grown larva measured nearly one inch and 

 a quarter in length when stretched out, though it 

 generally had the anterior half of its body arched 



