G250 



Insects, 



[I willingly supply llie fuvtlier information desired. Mr. Barrett is one of our 

 most persevering and most successful searchers of the gas-lamps : one night he took 

 a Geometra with which he was totally unacquainted ; he came the next morning and 

 described the new capture, which, as he is remarkably accurate and precise, I con- 

 cluded at once to be sacraria, and told him so : the news seemed almost too good to he 

 true ; but as soon as the insect could be moved from the setting-board it was 

 obligingly brought to this office, and I will vouch for its being a genuine sacraria. I 

 would willingly communicate to Mr. Dale, through the ' Zoologist,' the very lamp- 

 post that produced this treasure, but Mr. Barrett has not permitted me to do so. — 

 Edivard Newman'\. 



Larva of Camptogramma gemmaria. — A lovely female of this species laid me 

 some eggs on the 24lh of July ; they were oblong, flattish and yellow, but changed 

 to a dusky brown colour on the 1st of August: the following day the larva? hatched ; 

 at first they were very dingy, but on the 8th of August became dusky sap-green, and 

 on the 16th assumed their characteristic markings. There were evidently two distinct 

 varieties, one of which had the ground-colour of a greenish gray, tinged with 

 red between the segments ; the spiracular line blackish and irregularly interrupted ; 

 the back (except the last two segments) dusky, having on the intermediate segments a 

 row of five elongated diamonds of the ground-colour, with a dusky dot in each ; on 

 the front segments these markings ran into three parallel dusky lines, while on the end 

 segments there were four slender dusky lines arranged in a diamond pattern ; the 

 prolegs had a dusky stripe running down them. The other variety had the ground- 

 colour of a light yellowish green, quite yellow between the segments ; the spiracular 

 line and the pattern on the back faintly indicated by dusky black lines and dots. 

 These larvae fed readily on groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), at last eating through stems 

 bigger than themselves ; but, as their frass seemed very watery, I doubt whether this 

 is their proper food. They were quiet in their habits, resting on the under side of the 

 leaves, hiding themselves skilfully, and could not be easily dislodged; when dis- 

 turbed they curled up the front segments, but not into such a twisted knot as I have 

 sometimes seen in more slender loopers. From the 21st to the 23rd of August the 

 larvae, being full fed, spun up in moss. After having been in pupa about a fortnight, 

 the perfect insects emerged. There went down two of the green and four of the 

 darker larvae ; there have come up again one C. fluviata {^) and five C. gemmaria ( $ ) 

 — such a narrow risk did I run of missing the solution of this problem! Solved, 

 however, it is, and C. fluviata and C. gemmaria are hereby declared to be man and wife. 

 I expected to find the difference of colour in the larvae would turn out to be a 

 sexual one; this, however, has been contradicted by the result. The pupa is brown, 

 smooth, spiked at the tail, enclosed in a thin silken cocoon in moss. I have now 

 seen in all about fifteen specimens of C. fluviata and six of C. gemmaria, and find that 

 the absence in each of what were considered the distinctive markings of the other is 

 not constant: the subapical blotch of C. fluviata may be traced more or less dis- 

 tinctly (sometimes quite distinctly) in C. gemmaria ; while some specimens of C. fluviata 

 have the central spot placed in the light ring, only the dark ground of C. gemmaria 

 makes this ring shine forth much more brightly, just as a nigger's sable skin 

 enhances the whiteness of his eyes. One of my bred specimens, having given me the 

 slip over the edge of the table, was detected in a dark corner of the room by the 

 white spots on the fore wings. As to the other markings, they are, line for line, 

 precisely similar ; so that the ground-colour alone remains to make the sexes look 



