ANTHROCERA EXULANS. 15 



acaulis and Alchemilla alpina, a great number of them 

 were brought home by Mr. Baker, who most kindly 

 sent to me on the 6th of July seven very fine larvae in 

 perfect condition, besides three that had already spun 

 up in cocoons in boxes before his return, and mentioned 

 then the apparent liking of the larvae for water, as he 

 had watched them closely, and seen instances of their 

 approaching water and drinking it, and one larvae 

 actually crawling in a tiny pool, as though enjoying its 

 miniature bath in the hot sunshine. This, of course, 

 led to the experiment of my sprinkling an occasional 

 drop or two of water over the food of four of my larvae 

 for a few days, but only with disastrous result, as the 

 four water-drinkers died from an efflorescence of mould 

 on their coats ; the remaining three lived some days 

 longer but fed very sparingly, chiefly on leguminous 

 plants, until each in turn died, the last on the 15th of 

 July. 



On the 17th of July I bred the moth from one of 

 the three cocoons, one only, a poor specimen and 

 slightly crippled, yet not enough to interfere with its 

 identification, and I hailed its appearance with great 

 satisfaction. 



Mr. Baker informed me that several of his larvae of 

 exulans spun their cocoons, but died within them un- 

 changed, while from the few that succeeded in effecting 

 their change to the pupa state he only obtained three 

 moths, all dwarfed, indeed, one of them was scarcely 

 more than half the size of a fine Swiss specimen. 



Possibly such poor results, with larvae which have 

 the reputation of being polyphagous, may either have 

 been from the want of their accustomed alpine plants, 

 or may else be attributed to the great difference of 

 climate from that of their habitat at so great an altitude 

 in Switzerland ; the elevation in the Scotch locality, 

 though not more than half of that in Switzerland, 

 being eleven degrees further to the north, so that, as 

 remarked by Dr. F. Buchanan White (' Entomologist's 

 Annual,' 1872, p. 13), the habitat of exulans " is 



