March. iSgi.] THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



41 



into the buds, but he did not ascertain whether it fed on the leaves. 

 Professor Frey also states that acanthodactyhis is usually polyphagous, 

 occurring on Ononis spinosa and repens, Stachys speciosa a.nd coccinea, and 

 the pelargoniums of our gardens." Jordan gives Ononis nvvensis 

 (" Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," Vol. II., p. 151) as a food 

 plant. 



The Rev. H. Williams writes : — punctidactyla, I took some 

 years ago in the autumn in the Clee Hill district of Shropshire, and 

 afterwards bred two specimens from larvae, found by a friend in the 

 same locality, feeding on Stachys sylvatica ; the pupae remained sus- 

 pended to the spike on which the larvae had fed. — On finding in this 

 county (Norfolk), larvae that appeared similar, feeding on the same 

 plant, I expected to breed pundidactyla , but they all, without ex- 

 ception, turned out acanfliodactylns (''Entomologist's Monthly 

 Magazine," Vol. XVIIL, p. 212. 



Pupa — The pupa appears to vary in ground colour to the same 

 extent as the larvae, the ground colour varying from pale green to dark 

 purple, but getting darker in the paler forms just before emergence. 

 In this species, as in the next, the antennae cases are quite detached, 

 and these, wath the two curious curved portuberances specially 

 characteristic of this genus, give it a very strange and curious 

 appearance. It is to be found among its food plant attached by the 

 anal segment. Mr. C. G. Barrett writes : — "The pupae of A. 

 acantliodactyUis are to be found attached by the tail to the flower spike 

 of the Stachys, between two of the seed-vessels, where they look like 

 dried up flowers " (" Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," Vol. XIV., 



P- 159)- 



Time of Appearance, &c. — The imago of this species is to be found 

 in May, and these are undoubtedly hybernated specimens. At Deal 

 the insect is again common in July and the beginning of August, and 

 again in September, so that the insect is double-brooded, the later 

 brood hybernating in the imago state. With regard to this point Mr. 

 Nelson M. Richardson writes : Some eggs were laid by a (hyber- 

 nated) $ ncantho dactyl a on June 17th, 1888, and I bred acanthodactyla 

 on August loth. I suppose these would represent the first brood, but 

 could not, of course be sure that the ? taken on June 17th, had 

 hybernated" {in litt). Mr. C. G. Barrett also writes : — ''A. 

 acanthodactyla is certainly double-brooded, the second brood emerging 



