2 3 o THE YOUNG NATURALIST. [D ECEMBEE 



as others, got specimens there in several different years. The railway 

 runs close along the shore for a long distance, and though there is 

 often not above a foot or two of vegetation outside the fencing, it was 

 always a most productive ground. In those days Galii was not called 

 a chance visitor. It was not expected by some of our friends here 

 that the larvae would be found in 1889, and, consequently, little search 

 was made. Some, however, searched for and found them, though but 

 few were recorded. My wife and I found five in one night — the best 

 night we had in 1889, and the imagines bred from them were shown 

 to Mr. Barrett, as reported in the E. M. M. for last month. 



I would now say a word or two on the manner in which D. galii 

 pupates in a state of nature, and I will give one reason why it is scarce. 

 Some larvae make up on the surface, among the stems of the food 

 plant. It is a larva that never wanders far from the patch of Galium 

 amongst which they were hatched, and it is very easy to trace them 

 in fine weather by their frass, which may be found from small pellets 

 to large reeded pieces, often quarter of an inch long — or nearly. 

 When they pupate near the food, when the plant dies down, and the 

 fragments are entirely dispersed by the winds in winter, then the Galii 

 pupae are a bonne houche for the rooks, and all the exposed pupae are de- 

 voured. But some larvae do not change on the surface, but go down 

 into the sand — often as deep as ten inches, or even more. They then 

 turn round and pupate with their heads pointing to the surface ! These 

 are the pupae that produce the moths that keep up the race. When 

 ready to emerge, every movement of the pupa causes it to work up- 

 wards, and they soon reach the surface. But if any of the surface 

 changed pupae happen to be preserved by being covered with blown 

 sand, their wriggling does but make them move in a horizontal direc- 

 tion, if at all, and their strength becomes exhausted without result, 

 and they must perish. Hence only the larvae that have gone deep into 

 the sand are likely to produce imagines. I had my larvae in 1888 in 

 large flower pots, w r ith more than a foot of sand in them. To satisfy 

 myself, I broke the pots, and scraped the sand gently away until I 

 came to the pupae in situ. All these pupae were light drab colour, well 

 speckled about the wings, &c, and though removed, they remained 

 light coloured, and the empty pupa skins, after emergence, were still 

 much paler than those that pupated on the surface, which were very 

 dark. Many of these pupae so removed failed to emerge, owing, 



