Insects. 



6345 



years. On the 15th of June we first found several pupae of our exulis, 

 of which one was apparently not quite fresh. By means of very zealous 

 rakings in the high moss, we managed, by the beginning of July, to 

 find about thirty pupae of the species ; and we obtained a good many 

 in those places in particular where the moss grew sparingly among the 

 grass. Tn these rakings (also early in May, near Reykjavik) we found 

 besides some pupae of conflua, together with larvae and pupae of Gra- 

 minis, another dingy white species of larva, in all about thirty speci- 

 mens of various sizes. Some appeared to be full-grown and measured 

 about 40 mills., some were hardly half so large, and others still smaller. 

 All were decidedly healthy, with the exception of some large ones 

 infested with larvae of Ichneumons. The best proof of their healthiness 

 was that the smaller ones increased visibly in size and cast their skins. 

 The largest would, nevertheless, not assume the pupa state, and at our 

 departure on the fifteenth of August, they were no larger than when 

 we found them at the end of June. When these larvae ate for them- 

 selves ways and cavities in the moss, we at first thought they fed on 

 moss ; but here we were mistaken, for their proper food consisted of 

 the lowest portion of the stems of grasses, or the roots. This was 

 chiefly the reason why most of them died on board ship, where we 

 had only moss to give them ; some of them there also, in storms, 

 came in contact with the sea water ; nevertheless we brought some 

 home in a healthy state. These larvae were those of our exulis. 



We had found in the latter half of July a number of worn females 

 of exulis, which laid eggs. They were put into a large, airy case with 

 grass and flowers therein, but we could not find any eggs ; indeed some 

 were already dead. There we saw on the 26th of July, during the 

 hottest mid-day sunshine, a female sitting on the thick lower part of a 

 stem of Poa alpina. Kalisch wished to take it off, but to our amaze- 

 ment it sat fast on the stem. The last segments of the body were moving 

 about in a nearly perpendicular position, and the ovipositor almost 

 bored into the stem. By further observation we found several holes 

 made by the ovipositor into the narrow sheath-leaves of the stem, 

 between which and the stem were laid about one hundred eggs. I 

 now examined the stems placed with the imprisoned moths, and found 

 a quantity of eggs deposited in a very similar manner. The eggs are 

 almost disk-shaped, which, except for their peculiar position, they 

 would not be. They are smooth, yellowish brown, and small in pro- 

 portion to others; for example, about half the size of those of E. Gra- 

 minis. After two or three weeks the young larvae appeared and as long 

 as their size permitted they remained on the grass-stem and gnawed 

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