Insects. 



6061 



the larva state, on the Pentlands, in October, feeding on the common 

 fern or braken {Ptej'is aquilina). These larvae formed loose cocoons 

 just under the surface of the earth, and produced the perfect insects 

 in June, 1856. 



In June and July, 1855, Dianthsecia conspersa was observed by the 

 Messrs. Wilson, at Slateford and Currie, in which localities they af- 

 terwards found the larvae in August, feeding on the seeds of Silene 

 inflata, along with those of the rather scarce D. carpophaga. From 

 these larvae both species were reared in 1856; but those of D. carpo- 

 phaga are not easily reared in confinement, and but few moths came 

 to perfection. These are very different in colour from English speci- 

 mens of the same insect, being much darker and less ochraceous in 

 tint, and are no doubt a climatal or geographical variety. 



The next species I have to mention is Demas Coryli, of which 

 Mr. Wilson reared one male, from a larva found in the autumn of 

 1855. During last autumn Mr. Wilson and I found nine or ten more 

 larvae, so that the species does not seem so rare in the district as we 

 had imagined it to be, although certainly less common than in many 

 other parts of Scotland. 



In 1856 the Messrs. Wilson added five species to the list. Lobo- 

 phora lobulata was found among sallows near Penicuik, in April ; and 

 in the same locality, in June, Coremia ferrugata and C. propugnata 

 occurred, — both common insects, but not before observed in the dis- 

 trict. Thera variata {T, coniferata^ Curtis; T, simulata^ Guenee, 

 Hub. ?) was reared in July, from rather short green larvae, with white 

 lines, found on juniper on the Pentlands, in June, along with the 

 larvae of Eupithecia sobrinata; and on the 8th of October I beat a 

 specimen of the perfect insect from one of the juniper bushes, appa- 

 rently indicating the existence of a second brood in the year, as in 

 Thera simulata. Finally, Mr. Wilson found five or six larvae of 

 Clostera reclusa on Salix capraea, in Drumshorling Wood, near Brox- 

 burn, in the end of August : they were then full grown, and spun 

 their cocoons in a day or two after they were placed in captivity. 



Late in October, 1855, when the leaves were rapidly departing from 

 the trees, I found the active, green, fusiform larvae of Swammerdamia 

 griseo-capitella, in abundance on the dwarf birches at Ravelrig Bog, 

 along with the larvae of Phlaeodes frutetana ; and forming circular 

 mines in the birch leaves, somewhat like those made in the leaves of 

 apple and pear trees by the brilliant little Cemiostoma scitella, were a 

 few unknown larvae of a Nepticula, which produced, in 1856, N. ar- 

 gentipedella, almost at the same time that Mr. Stainton bred the 



