8702 



Insects. 



with the head on one side. Head glabrous, narrower than the body : body obese, 

 uniformly cylindrical, quite smooth. Head pale transparent apple-green, with black 

 ocelli ; body delicate apple-green, with a broad and very conspicuous stripe on each 

 side, of a pale glaucous-green, approaching to white; this stripe commences imme- 

 diately behind the head, and terminates in the anal claspers ; it passes below the 1st 

 and the 9th spiracles, but includes all the rest, and is gradually attenuated towards 

 both extremities : there is a very narrow pale yellow median dorsal stripe, and exactly 

 intermediate between this and the broad lateral stripe is another very narrow pale yel- 

 low stripe, less continuous and less distinct; there are numerous minute yellow 

 markings throughout the dorsal surface, in addition to the three narrow stripes I have 

 mentioned, and along the upper margin of the brown lateral stripe the green is 

 tinged with smoky black : belly, legs and claspers pale semitransparent green. Buries 

 itself in the earth and changes to a pupa about the middle of June : the moth ap- 

 pears in July and August, and hvbernates. I am indebted to Mr. Wright for this 

 larva. — Edward Newman. 



Description of the Larva of Dianthcecia capsophila. — The egg is laid on the seed- 

 pods of Silene maritima, and the young larva enters the capsule and feeds on the 

 seed ; as it increases in size it devours the walls of the capsules, and even the calyx. 

 When full-fed it rolls itself into a ring, and feigns death if removed from its food. 

 Head small, porrected in crawling, glabrous, beset with scattered hairs: body obese, 

 smooth, cylindrical, slightly attenuated towards each extremity. Head pale semi- 

 transparent brown ; ocelli black, and a black dot at the base of each hair: body pale 

 wainscot-brown, with fine paler longitudinal stripes ; the most conspicuous of these is 

 median and dorsal ; the widest is lateral, and includes the spiracles, which are pale in 

 the centre, but bordered with black ; exactly intermediate between the median dorsal 

 and the spiracular lateral stripe, is one less conspicuous and rather narrower than 

 either ; the dorsal surface of the 2nd segment is glabrous, subcorneous, and darker 

 brown, but the median dorsal stripe passes distinctly through this darker portion ; the 

 belly, legs and claspers are very pale. These larvae were full-fed on Midsummer Day. 

 I am indebted to Mr. Birchall for a supply, which I fed on Silene inflata, in the ab- 

 sence of their proper food-plant: they became pale brown pupae on the 11th of July. 

 The hill of Howth, near Dublin, is the only known British locality. — Id. 



Notes on Ino Geryon.— On the 22ud of May last I and my friend Mr. Bibbs took 

 a trip in search of Ino Geryon, and succeeded in taking upwards of one hundred pupae. 

 Each of us took the larvae, pupae and imagos on the same day. The pupae appear to 

 be entirely confined to a particular species of moss, Hypnum triquetrum (a very com- 

 mon kind), in which they lie concealed. There is another peculiarity : we could not 

 discover any pupae where the moss was either long or short ; the medium length or 

 growth alone contained them. We searched other mosses diligently on the very spot, 

 and adjoining the species already mentioned, but not one cocoon were we able to find 

 therein. Only about one-half of the pupae we had taken produced the perfect insects ; 

 some had been stung, and others appear to have been old cocoons. Mr. Bibbs has 

 obtained eggs from the insects bred at home, which were of a dullish yellow colour; 

 these are hatched, and the larvae are feeding on Helianthemum vulgare (common 

 rock-rose), which I procured for them from a distance, as the plant does not grow any- 

 where near our residences. This without doubt is its proper food, and is very abun- 

 dant on the limestone hills where the insect is found. Rumex acetosa (sorrel) was 

 placed with the Helianthemum vulgare, but the larvae rejected it, and would eat the 



