178 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



on the disk running to the tip of the wing. V.VI." With regard to 

 the time of appearance of this species, Mr. N. M. Richardson, M.A., 

 writes : — " I think there must be two or three broods in the year, as 

 the larvae I obtained in October 1887, became imagines on May 5th, 

 1888. I saw the imagines flying this year, last week (first week in 

 July, 1889) at Portland, and the larvae I obtained in October would 

 probably be the offspring of moths emerging in August or September, 

 so that I assume there are emergences in May, July, and September 

 (or August), but this is only theoretical." (in litt.) Merrin's " Calen- 

 dar" gives V-VI. and VIII. as the months of emergence for the 

 imagines. 



Larva — " Pale green, bristly ; the spots glassy. On the underside 

 of leaves of bramble and raspberry" (Stainton's "Manual," page 

 402). Mr. Richardson again writes : — " I found full-fed larvae of 

 C . festaliella on October 26th, 1887, feeding on the upper surface of 

 bramble leaves, and only eating the upper portion of the leaf. The 

 larvae seem to ramble about a good deal from one leaf to another, 

 so that one sees a great many traces of feeding but not many larvae. 

 The larva is green and hairy, and very like a plume larva in style " 

 (in litt., 1888). I would direct attention to the fact that whilst the 

 " Manual " says " under surface," Mr. Richardson found larvae feed- 

 ing only on the " upper surface" of the leaf. In the "Entomo- 

 logist's Annual" for 1856, p. 57, Mr. Stainton writes: — "Mr. T. 

 Wilkinson, of Scarborough, sent me in September some larvae of this 

 species, and subsequently I found them at Bideford rather commonly. 

 They feed either on the upper or underside of bramble-leaves, eating 

 the leaf half through and making conspicuous blotches, which are 

 very evident, even when you are not specially looking for them. The 

 larva agrees well with Hubner's figure, which is copied by Curtis." 

 The larva may be found in June, August, and again in October. 

 The food plants appear to be raspberry and bramble ; in Merrin's 

 " Calendar," page 116, honeysuckle is given as food-plant, but both 

 Messrs. C. G. Barrett and Dr. Jordan doubt the occurrence of the 

 larva on this plant. 



Pupa — The larva spins a cocoon, which is very beautiful. It 

 is oval and composed of a fine network of threads ; these threads 

 are stiff in substance somewhat like those in a cocoon of Cerura 

 vinula " (Mr. Richardson in litt.) 



This species is common in many parts of Britain, occurring in 

 Kent and almost all the Southern Counties, extending its range into 

 the Lake District, and since it occurs in Scandinavia probably occurs 



