1880. 
135 
November, 1867), of a specimen having being taken off the window of a lighthouse, 
near Padstow, in August, 1862. — G. J. Hearder, Job’s Well, Carmarthen : 3Qth 
September , 1880. 
Micra ostrina at Dover. — On September 8th, I was fortunate enough to take a 
fine specimen of M. ostrina on Dover Cliffs. I was nearly passing it over as a 
Crambus, which it much resembles in its flight. I took it about eleven o’clock 
during bright sunshine. 
My capture confirms an old note I owe to Mr. Bond, that this insect is double- 
brooded : though I understood from the Rev. Hy. Burney that nearly all the 
captures known have occurred in June or July. — Battershell Gill, Folkestone : 
September 23rd, 1880. 
Capture of Micra ostrina, M. parva, and Noctua Jlammatra. — I have just 
added to my collection M. ostrina taken by a friend on the Dorset coast, and M. 
parva and N. Jlammatra taken at Freshwater by Mr. H. Rogers in July and 
August. — C. W. Dale, Glanvilles Wootton : October 3th, 1880. 
Notes on the young larva of Triphcena pronuba. — On the 5th of August last, 
some Lepidopterous eggs were sent to me for determination ; they were on a stem of 
Polygonum aviculare, pearly-white, circular, with upper surface raised to a slight 
point. There was something in the look of them which seemed familiar to me and 
that it was some polyphagous animal was shown by my finding a batch of them on 
the flowers of Lolium perenne, on the 8th of August, yet I felt unable to guess at 
what they could be. However, as the pearly-white look was soon gone, and the eggs 
become duller and greyer, I felt I had not long to wait, and in due course there 
emerged some bristly, half-looping little larvae, which I readily recognised as those of 
Plusia gamma. 
I was accordingly not a little surprised when my querist informed me he had 
ascertained that the eggs he had sent me for determination were those of Triphcena 
pronuba, a larva which is well known to have 16 legs, and with which most Lepidop- 
terists are tolerably familiar. 
On the 15th of August, I was rather startled to find a sprig of Cryptomeria 
japonica quite covered with these same eggs, and that same evening I found another 
batch on a dead lilac stem. As I was not disposed at once to abandon my P. gamma 
notion, I resolved to ascertain to a dead certainty what these eggs really were, and 
so sent a supply at once to Mr. Buckler, who, from his great experience in rearing 
from tne egg, was tolerably safe to succeed where I should have probably failed. 
On the 10th of September, I received from him the following notes, showing 
that the eggs were unquestionably those of Triphcena pronuba, but that the larvae 
when newly hatched have the two anterior pair of ventral prolegs ill-developed and 
do not use them when walking, thus causing their motions to resemble those of the 
genus Plusia. 
“Eggs laid on Cryptomeria (received August 17th), close together, showing 
only the domed top of each, the ribs meeting in the centre, colour pinkish-grey 
(with dark blotch in the centre), increasing to almost leaden-grey; they hatched 
during the afternoon of the 19th August. 
« qq ie young larva resents in a testy way with some degree of pugnacity the 
being touched by a neighbouring larva, even while crawling away from the egg-shell. 
It is of a light grey colour, very pellucid, with blackish- brown head -plate, minute dots 
