92 
[September, 
species, yet its history has, I believe, never been investigated, or any description of 
the larva published, a desideratum I have herein attempted to supply from the 
opportunity afforded me by Mr. J. Gardner, of Hartlepool, who kindly sent me 
first a larva, in 1878, and in 1879 a batch of eggs on 22nd of August ; these began 
to hatch on the 28th, when the larva 1 were transferred to a large pot planted with 
Festuca duriuscula, and having a margin of moss inside. 
On the 4th of October I observed several of their little tubular galleries, open 
at top, as they were spun in an upright position amongst the grass, with a few 
withered grass particles adhering ; and by the 16th, many more could be seen, more 
or less connected with each other and the grass by a number of fine silk threads. 
The grass was vigorous enough to withstand their early attacks, and flourished 
well during the ensuing winter while the larvae were quiescent, until a warm and sunny 
day (the 6th of March, 1880) waked them from their torpor, when they became very 
busy amongst both grass and moss, in extending the old residences and constructing 
others, uniting the moss-covered galleries to the grass blades near, with a great 
number of fine threads, and in the same way they secured the moss to the side of 
the pot. 
By degrees, the combined attack began to check the growth of the grass, which 
presented a melancholy spectacle as June approached, when a fresh pot was provided, 
barely in time, as I found the greater number of larva3 had escaped, though a couple 
had been picked up while deserting their old quarters, just in time to warn me of 
their exodus ; but enough for my purpose were put in the fresh grass to produce six 
examples of the moth, which appeared from 19th of July to August 1st. 
The egg in shape is elliptical, having an elongate depression on part of its 
surface, and is very closely ribbed and finely reticulated ; when first laid it is of a 
whitish straw tint, changing in two days to flesh colour, again onwards to salmon 
colour, and then to deep pink, when it begins to hatch. The young larva at first is 
of a pinkish-salmon colour with darkish brown glossy head and plate, the body 
without gloss, and a pale brown anal plate. By the middle of October the larva is 
just a little over one-eighth of an inch long and proportionally stout, its form 
cylindrical and slightly tapered only at the hinder segment, having all the segmental 
divisions well cut, the head is of an opalescent or whitish flesh colour with conspicuous 
black ocelli, the second segment is of similar pale colour but having an internal 
leaden-grey blotch showing through the surface, the rest of the body pinkish-brown, 
with the anal flap pale as the head, the horny tubercular spots close together and 
concolorous : its gallery or tube a quarter of an inch long, composed of silk, covered 
with frass having the appearance of finely gnawed grass. 
After hibernation the new gallery is formed between a few blades of grass, 
about the distance of an inch and a half above the ground, and is covered with fine 
particles of moss and of withered remnants of grass blades, or with frass only ; early 
in March its occupant is more than three-sixteenths of an inch long, of an uniform 
brown colour, the spots only noticeable by their gloss. 
Towards the end of April the larva has grown to the length of three-eighths of 
an inch, moderately stout in proportion, though gently tapering from the thoracic 
segments to the thirteenth, its colour much paler, without any difference in that of 
the head, plates, spots, or the skin of the body, except that the latter is dull and all 
the former shining. 
