40 
The egg-laying is practically the same all through. The ovipositor 
is pointed and flat so that it can be thrust within the sheathing 
leaves of reed and grass stems and grass blooms. The eggs them¬ 
selves in their natural position are generally flattened spheres, those 
of the nunagrias being more flattened than those of the Leucanids. 
The eggs of the internal feeders and those external feeders which 
require the growing stems to feed in and on, do not hatch till the 
spring, and are covered with a glutinous substance which protects 
them from the water, as they are often submerged during the winter ; 
those of the rest hatch in the summer, and the larvfe mostly hibernate 
small, though some are full-fed before the winter but do not pupate 
till the spring. The only species I know which pupates in the 
autumn is M. fiammea. 
I do not propose to deal with all the larvae separatel}', the 
larval habits of most of the “ Wainscots ” are well-known to yon 
all, I expect. Perhaps a few notes on one or two may be 
interesting. Obsolela and straminea larvae always strike me as being 
different from the rest of the Leucanids, though this may only be from 
force of circumstances. Their long flattened bodies are so different 
from the usual cylindrical Leucania larvae ; but when one comes to 
think the matter out, it is necessary they should be so, as they hide 
within dead reed stems in the day time, as they are inhabitants of the 
old reed beds growing in the wetter portions of the fens; and they 
have nowhere else to go, or the birds would soon find them out. * 
Brevilinea has a most curious larval existence; when small, it is an 
internal feeder ; as it grows larger, it comes out to feed on the leaves ; 
when it has finished its supper, it bites a hole in the reed-stem, just 
below the terminal leaf, and enters the stem to hide during the day ; 
the reeds grow so fast at this season, that by the next morning the 
sheathing leaf has grown over the hole and the larva is quite hidden, 
hence it is very rarely ichneumoned. In its last stages it is purely 
an external feeder, and it pupates on the surface of the fen. Cannae, 
again, is another curious example ; it starts feeding in scirpus, and 
sometimes iris and sparganium, as also sparganii does; then, as it 
grows, it enters typlia stems, both latifolia and angustifolia, and 
pupates in the interior of the stem, head upwards, as against typhae, 
which always pupates head downwards. I have sometimes found 
pupae of cannae in stems of scirpus, sparganium, flower stems of Iris 
pseudacorus, and once in the hollow stem of Cicuta virosa, though this 
only occurs, I think, when the stem in which they fed was unsuitable 
for pupation. The moor-hens are great enemies of cannae and 
sparganii, as the pupae are always below the emergence hole, and they 
peck downwards and eat them ; but typhae escapes, as it is above the 
hole. The larvae of many of our rare species, when we get a hot 
autumn as we had last year, feed up rapidly, and spin a puparium, 
and, I think, are thus enabled to stand our climate, whereas they would 
be killed as small larvae. 
The pupae of the Nonagrias are interesting in possessing a 
pointed headpiece or beak, with which they break through °the 
outer cuticle of the stem to enable the moth to hatch. 
Now, to go on to another subject, Senta maritima, in which genus 
should this species be placed ? I believe it is a macro, though the larva 
is very like a tortrix, and does not resemble any of the wainscots in 
