408 Proceedings of the 



biting stonecrop (Sedum acre) ; on this they feed with avidity, 

 and also on such scanty grasses as may fall in their way ; 

 but, from the nature of the ground, they must often travel a 

 long way to find a meal. These conditions, however, seem 

 essential to the existence of the species, as it is never found 

 where there is the least tendency to moisture or luxuriance of 

 vegetation. Mr Stainton, in his "Manual of British Lepi- 

 doptera," gives the dandelion (Leontodon taraxacum) as one 

 of its food-plants ; but this is certainly not its natural food 

 here, as the plant is scarcely found where the insect occurs. 



On the 23d of April, the elongate green larvae of Thera si- 

 mulata, and the curious reddish, variegated, and twelve-footed 

 larvae of Ellopia fasciaria, were found upon Scotch fir in 

 Drumshorling Wood. But few moths were astir as yet ; al- 

 though one specimen of a Nepticula, new to the district, was 

 captured, and a $ Trachea piniperda was shaken out of one 

 of the pines, and in the course of a day or two deposited a few 

 eggs of the usual type peculiar to the Noctuidae. The young 

 larvae produced from these, which did not hatch till the 20th 

 of May, exactly three weeks after they were deposited, would 

 not touch the leaves of the pine at first, but fed for some time 

 entirely upon the flower-buds at the extremities of the 

 branches. 



In the course of a second visit to Drumshorling, on the 

 21st May, Nepticula floslactella was found in abundance in 

 some of the pines, where it had apparently taken refuge from 

 the weather, as it is not a pine, but a sallow feeder. Two 

 specimens of Ocnerostoma piniariella, a legitimate pine- 

 feeder, were also found ; and the larvae of Oporabia autum- 

 naria were not very uncommon on the birches. The young 

 larvse of Xanthia flavago were also found still feeding in the 

 catkins of the sallows. 



On the 2d of May the larvae of Oelechia instabilis were 

 found on the coast at Morrison's Haven, beyond Musselburgh. 

 They bore down the shoots of Plantago maritima into the 

 tough woody stem, and must often be covered by the tide at 

 high-water. On the same day a very interesting addition was 

 made by the discovery of the larvae of Bucculatrix aurima- 

 culella mining in the leaves of Chrysanthemum leucanthemum 



