TIIE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
1G2 
color, are laid upon the steins and 
leaves of the food plant,* that on 
hatch lug, a whitish larva with longish 
pubescent hairs and a davit head is 
produced, which mines its way down 
between a leaf and the stem for a short 
distance, when, piercing the next inner 
layer, it again mines down, piercing 
another layer, and so on until it 
gains the pith, where I conclude it 
undergoes the remainder of its 
larval and pupal life. The egg 
hatches about the end of August, 
the larva is full fed about the middle 
of June, and the moth appears to- 
wards the end of June, and continues 
to emerge through July.- — H. G. 
Knaggs, Kentish Town Road, N. W. 
B. rhomboidaria. — Can you, or 
any of your correspondents, give 
me from experience an account of 
the larva of Rhomboidaria and its 
habits, as one or two facts I have 
observed do not seem quite to tally 
with Mr. Stainton’s description in 
the “ Manual.” My facts are as 
follows : — In the middle of February 
last, I took on our quick hedge a 
small, smooth dark brown Geometric 
larva, without any markings or pro- 
tuberances. When taken it was 
about three-quarters of an inch 
long’ ; it eat hawthorn, and con- 
* The pubescent state of the newly 
hatched larva shows, in my estimation, 
that it is at first not naturally an internal 
feeder, although after piercing a layer of 
the grass, it becomes smooth and more 
adapted for its subsequent mode of life. 
tinned to grow until the 10th of 
May, when having reached a 
length of nearly two inches, it went 
to chrysalis in the mould, and on 
June 14th produced a hue female 
Rhomboidaria. In color the larva 
exactly resembled a twig of the old 
wood of the hawthorn, being dark 
ashy brown, dusted with whitish. 
Again as late as May 4th, I found 
on the glass pane of our front door, 
a pale drab Geometric larva with 
faint grey longitudinal lines, and a 
row of greyish lozenges on the back ; 
this also had no protuberances. 
Not knowing what it was, and being 
puzzled as to its food plant, I gave 
it some of the nearest leaves, which 
were ivy, growing on the house 
porch. This it eat with gusto, and 
continued to live and thrive on it 
until May 20th, when it also went 
to chrysalis in the mould, and on 
June 20th produced B. rhomboidaria 
■ — this time a male. These facts 
suggest several questions. 1st. — 
Had the one I took in February 
hybernated ? Mr. Stainton gives 
IX and X for its appearance. 2nd — - 
Is there ever a constant difference 
between the larvae which produce 
males and those which produce 
females ? or was the difference owing- 
to the food plant ? Certainly each 
closely resembled the stems of the 
plant on which it fed ; the last 
mentioned larva being’ hardly dis- 
tinguishable from the young ivy 
stems ; particularly the leaf stalks. 
