148 
THE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
form is leech-like, and, after the 
manner of other dipterous larva ’ , 
they are not furnished with feet or 
eyes. These, indeed, they do not 
seem to need, as they have only to 
stretch their lithe form to get at 
their lithe prey. Reaumur has des- 
cribed with minuteness their organ of 
suction. It consists exteriorly, he 
says, of a three-pointed barb, open 
at the end, and furnished with a 
sucker. The barb serves to pierce 
the skin, and the sucker to pump up 
the juices of the body of the aphis- 
This piston-like movement is con- 
tinued till nothing of the victim re- 
mains but the dry and shrivelled 
skin. I have often seen the larva 
so engaged. The barb pierces the 
aphis and holds it erect till the 
juices arc extracted, when the skin 
is rejected, and other unfortunates 
are treated in the same manner, till 
the creature is repleted. When the 
larva is full grown, it attaches itself 
by means of a viscous fluid to various 
stems and twigs ; the body becomes 
curtailed, though it retains some- 
thing of its former shape. Th e pupa- 
case would have to be adapted to the 
color of the vegetation, to which it 
is made to adhere. 
I have recently found some on 
beech boles of a dark colour, like to 
the dark lichen-covered bole of the 
t 
tree itself. Others, again, of a 
dappled character, on ferns; and 
bright green semi-transparent cases, 
on one of our thread mosses (llri/ain 
Ligulatum). I have found no diffi- 
culty in hatching the tenants of 
these several cases, which vaiy, of 
course, considerably in their mark- 
ms's and characters. — P etek Inch- 
BALD*, Storthes Hall , near Hudders- 
field, June 8, 1863. 
Lepidoptera. 
Abrostola Triplasia .- — As soon as 
the young larva of Triplasia leaves 
the egg, it attacks the leaves of the 
common stinging nettle with great 
energy, eating small round holes 
from the under surface of the leaf. 
This habit leads, not unfrequently, 
to the detection of the young larvce. 
Though they hatch all at once, yet, 
as is not unfrequently the case with 
other species, some soon outgrow 
the others, and the process of moult- 
ing is therefore very irregularly 
timed. I once found many die on 
changing the third skin, which I. 
attributed to my having given them 
nettles which had been attacked by 
the Aphis. It is, therefore, desirable 
to choose plants free from that in- 
sect. The larva appears quite im- 
pervious to the stings — I have often 
seen them, when they come to one 
take it in the pro-legs and make 
about three nips of it, as though it 
was a dainty morsel. Before chang- 
ing the skin, the larva gets a degree 
of transparency ; or, perhaps, a bet- 
ter description is that it looks as 
though filled with water. 
I have taken a careful and minute 
