1 1 4 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[June 



appears to have been copied by Mr. South, who writes : — " Food, 

 Eupatorium cannabimim. Feeds on the flowers " (" Entomologist," 

 Vol. XV., p. 103). Mr. Buckler gives the following full description 

 of the larva in its various stages of growth, together with some general 

 notes on the habits of the insect in this stage. He writes : — "To 

 Mr. W. H. Grigg, of Bristol, I have been indebted for the- good 

 opportunity afforded me of studying this interesting plume larva, by 

 his very kindly sending me a number of examples on the 26th July, 

 1875, which, two days before, he had found in the flowering stems of 

 Eupatorium cannabimim. Mr. Grigg also acquainted me with his having 

 taken, at the same time and place, nine fresh specimens of the moth, 

 at the very spot where they occurred plentifully in May of the 

 previous year, hence he inferred the insect to be double-brooded. I 

 found it no easy matter to keep the stems, in which these larvae were 

 living, from either drying up or turning mouldy ; from these mishaps, 

 and from the larvae refusing to enter the fresh stems provided for 

 them, most of the number died — however, I was at length well pleased 

 at being able to breed three specimens of the moth on August 8th, 

 9th, 19th, and a fourth a fortnight later, thus satisfactorily proving 

 their identity. Most of these larvae were mining, singly, within the 

 stems, near to the axils of the leaf stalks, though three or four had 

 their mines situated midway between the axillary branchings near the 

 top of the plant, the small hole at the entrance of a mine is not very 

 readily detected, for although frass is probably extruded from it, 

 especially at first, yet I found none hanging outside the entrance, and 

 only a fine dust at the bottom of their cage gave evidence that a small 

 quantity must occasionally have fallen out of the holes ; the mines 

 always appeared lightly filled up from within, just level with the 

 surface of the stem, and so the orifices not contrasting much in colour, 

 were not very conspicuous from being no more than one-sixteenth of 

 an inch in diameter. The youngest larva examined I found to be just 

 one-eighth of an inch long, and possessed of all the details of form, 

 colour, and other characteristics that so well distinguished this species 

 of Pterophorus from any I have as yet seen, inasmuch as it is furnished 

 with rough points or hooks, in many respects much like those we 

 know so well on the pupae of Cossus and of Hepiahis ; doubtless these 

 are both for support and progression Within the very tough stem 

 where it resides. The full-grown larva is one quarter of an inch in 

 length, plump in proportion, in general figure somewhat cylindrical, 

 but tapering forwards to the head, which is smaller than the second 

 segment, the last three segments . also tapering to the anal tip ; the 

 anterior legs are but little developed, while the ventral and anal legs 

 are so exceedingly small as to be with difficulty detected even with a 

 lens ; the segments are well defined, the first third of each, after the 



