THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 109 
dislodged thence before now by some 
energetic collector. 
Below is a list of the species about 
which I have at present any remarks to 
offer; but, before I stop my pen, I wish 
to be allowed — as a “ mere collector” — 
to give a shove to the movement now 
on foot, towards giving us improved 
descriptions. 
While some species seem fixed to one 
type, for others it is not enough to de- 
scribe, — not to say a single larva, — but 
any number of individuals, if belonging 
to the same brood; and in others again 
locality appears to cause a good deal of 
variation ; hence probably arises the in- 
accuracy to be seen in descriptions which 
come to us stamped with the authority 
of great names. On the other band, 
notes made by detached entomologists 
on single species sometimes fail in de- 
fining what they intend from want of 
more extended knowledge in the writers, 
for much of the value of a description 
depends on its being made with an eye 
to allied species. For instance, in a 
great many Loopers one finds the fol- 
lowing pattern prevail : — A row of six 
dorsal markings from fifth to tenth seg- 
ment (the four middle ones being best 
defined and coloured, and the first and 
last more indistinct), running into con- 
tinuous parallel lines on the front seg- 
ments, and contracting into a line, or 
being repeated with fainter outlines and 
more stunted proportions, on the hinder 
segments ; and it is easy to understand 
bow, where the colouring is not very 
different, a curtailed description of one 
species may be made to suit two or three 
others. 
But here I had better stop, and say no 
more than that I for one should be very 
glad if any one, competent to do so, 
would publish in the ‘Intelligencer’ a 
few hints on word-painting as applied to 
larvte, giving perhaps some headings, 
under which the different parts of the 
description might come ; future dis- 
coveries might, in that case, be more 
satisfactorily chronicled than the two or 
three unfortunate “ unknowns,” upon 
whom I have “ tried my ’prentice baud.” 
List. 
0 . prefixed to the name of any species means 
bred from the egg. 
O. Smerinthus Tilice. All the pupae 
which produced the parent moths were 
dug at elms, yet the larvae fed up twice 
as fast on lime as on elm. What makes 
the larvae of large species so apt to sicken 
and die off, apparently without cause? 
All three species of Smerinthus, as well 
as Cerura vinula, have served me in this 
way, whilst I have reared brood after 
brood of small things without losing a 
single larva. 
Chccrocampa Elpenor. This year I was 
introduced for the first time to the green 
variety of this larva, — a much handsomer 
fellow than his dingy brother. I noticed 
that a pupa in one of my cages worked 
itself out of its loose cocoon, and lay 
quite bare on the moss for six or seven 
weeks before the appearance of the perfect 
insect. This can hardly be its habit 
naturally ? 
Cossus Ligniperda. The following dates 
seem to confirm the notion that the time 
passed in the larva state is two years. 
October 29, 1857, I found in an oak tree 
several larvae an inch and a quarter long, 
but, despairing of being able to keep 
them alive, I left them where they were. 
September 22, 1858, I visited the same 
tree, and found, in exactly the same part 
of it, several larv® nearly full grown, 
being (as I suppose) the same I had seen 
in a juvenile stage eleven months before: 
I now boxed six or seven, kept them in 
sawdust through the winter, and on ex- 
amining their cage some time last spring 
