8208 



Insects. 



having the 3rd pair of legs seated on the swelling ; the 12th segment has two very 

 small warts on the back ; and the 13th segment beneath the anal flap has three short 

 mamillary points directed backwards, the middle one acute, the lateral ones obtuse : the 

 skin of the body is a good deal folded transversely, so as to give the segments the ap- 

 pearance of being subdivided into rings. The colour of the head is brown and 

 mottled; in some specimens the darker tints form two conspicuous patches on the 

 upper part of the face, nearly on the crown. Body particoloured ; there is a very 

 broad stripe down the middle of the body, and this contains and includes a number of 

 darker longitudinal markings, especially conspicuous on the 2nd and 3rd segments, 

 where they form two approximate parallel lines almost black ; the dorsal surface of the 

 8th segment is darker, and the dorsal surface of the 7th and 9th segments lighter than 

 the remainder of the back, and each of these three segments, that is, the 7th, 8th and 

 9th has a median dark spot transversely elongate and enclosed ill oblique lines that 

 seem faintly to indicate the lozenge-shaped markings, so usual in Melanippe and other 

 genera of Geometrav. there are, moreover, several minute black dots in pairs on the 

 back: on each side of the broad median stripe is a narrow black stripe, which is double 

 throughout its length, but its two component parts are so close together on most of 

 the segments that they appear united, while on the 9th and 11th segments they are 

 separate and quite distinct, and they terminate in the anal warts on the 12th segment; 

 this black stripe bends obliquely towards the back of the 6th and 7th segments ; be- 

 neath this double black stripe is a yellow stripe on each side, which includes the 

 spiracles; this yellow stripe is rather obscure on the 2ud, 3rd and 5th segments, but 

 very distinct in the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th segments, and on the 10th it descends into 

 the ventral claspers : there is a rosy or reddish tinge on the anterior margin of the 2nd, 

 3rd and 4th segments, on the sides of the 6th, 7th and 9th segments, and on the ante- 

 rior margin of the 10th, 11th and 12th segments; the ventral surface below the yellow 

 stripe is very dark, in some specimens quite black, with a median pale stripe extending 

 throughout its length; in some few specimens, however, this paler median stripe is 

 obliterated: the under surface between the ventral and anal claspers is pale ; the legs 

 are brown mottled, and the claspers pale brown. These larva vary exceedingly, but 

 more in the colour than the disposition of the markings. The usual food-plant is 

 Quercus Robur (oak), but it feeds freely on the leaves of the plum in confinement ; the 

 larvae were full fed on the 9th of July. Mr. Doubleday thinks this species is partially 

 double-brooded, and Mr. F. O. Standish also every year takes specimens of the second 

 brood. I am indebted to Mr. Wright for a most liberal supply of these larvae. In 

 this and the preceding description I have endeavoured to bring together all the in- 

 formation at hand respecting two insects which many entomologists, especially on the 

 Continent, seem to regard as constituting but a siugle species ; this, however, is not 

 the opinion of our greatest English Lepidopterist, Mr. Doubleday; and it would ill 

 become me to say a single word on a subject which our highest authorities are unable 

 to settle : I may, however, state that the larvae appear to me almost as difficult to dis- 

 tinguish as the perfect insects ; that of B. crepuscularia has a yellowish tinge, that of 

 B. biundularia a grayer tinge ; the latter is a more variegated and ornamented looking 

 larva. — Edward Newman. 



Food-plant of Eupilhecia virgaureata. — I have been breeding Eupithecia virgau- 

 reata from larvae I found in Devonshire last year. The greater part came out in May 

 or June, but a second batch are coming out now (from larva? found at the same time 

 as the former). T figured the larva, and have found a few here, all on Senecio 



