220 
THE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
full size. The other still remained 
a starveling till I read Mr. Gibson’s 
note, and talcing the hint from 
thence, gave him some polygonum 
aviculare ; Morrison’s pills (pace 
Dr. Knaggs) never effected such a 
change ! From a poor miserable 
wretch — emaciated, wrinkled, the 
picture of wretchedness — he has 
become sleek and fat, the very 
picture of robust health, and I ex- 
pect in a day or two will find his 
skin so tight as to be obliged to 
change it for a pupa case. — Rev. 
J. Hellins, Chaplain's House, 
County Prison, Exeter, August 8th, 
1863. 
Aeidalia Virgularia (Incanaria ). — 
I have some little larvae of this 
species, about 10 days old, which 
I put, wdien first hatched, on a 
growing dandelion, and I see that 
from the first they have eaten none 
but withering leaves. I think that 
several species in this genus, besides 
Herbariata, will eat withered leaves 
as readily, or even more so, than 
fresh ones. — I bid. 
Diptera. 
“ TJrophora Cardui .” — When at 
St. Leonard’s in the winter, I picked 
up, on Fairlight Downs, the head 
of a Carline thistle that gavo 
evidence of harbouring some pupa 
or other. Every one knows the 
star of the Carline thistle that is 
common on our downs — so widely 
open in the sunshine, so closely shut 
in rain or damp weather. On 
cutting into the knot, I turned out 
some dipterous pupae , which, from 
their brown tipped cases, I con- 
cluded to belong to one of the 
Tephritidoe. I was not wrong, as 
time showed. Early in July, several 
beautiful barred winged diptera 
made their appearance from the 
knotted head, which I had placed in 
a glass topped box, and occasionally 
moistened. I had fully eight 
tenants of my thistle-head that 
rejoice in the scientific name of 
“ TJrophora Cardui ; ” and certainly 
their burnished forms and the dark 
zigzag markings of their wings, 
give them beauty that may well vie 
with the prettiest Micros, that are 
so ardently hunted after by col- 
lectors. One was a female, with a 
prominent ovipositor. The others 
were all males. The economy is 
apparent. The thistle head is 
pierced at an early stage, and the 
eggs deposited in the receptacle, the 
eggs hatch, and the larva, feed on 
the seeds of the thistle, embedding 
themselves in the conical receptacle, 
which they distort to their purpose. 
Here they pass into the pupa state, 
whenco they finally emerge in the 
following summer. — Peter Inch- 
itALi), Sturt has llall, near Jludders- 
jield, August 1 0th, 1862. 
