50 
have seen no records from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, or the I. of Man. 
The first recorded capture of the larvte in Britain seems to be that 
at Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, on April 17th, 1893 ; 4 5 and of the 
pupa, that at Frinstead, Kent, on September 3rd, 1892. 6 
An idea of the rapidity with which the insect became common and 
generally distributed in this country may be gathered from sales of 
British collections of lepidoptera. In 1897, i.e., seven years after its 
invasion of Britain, bred specimens fetched 2/6 apiece, whilst in 1905 
they could be had for half that price. In a list recently to hand they 
are priced at 6d. 
Plusia moneta deposits its cream-coloured eggs in the flower-heads 
of monkshood ( Aconitum ) and larkspur ( Delphinium ), and in about a 
week the young larvie hatch and begin to feed amongst the buds and 
flowers, spinning the latter together with a slight silken web to form 
a protecting tent. Mr. Syney Webb, of Dover, says 6 that the larvae 
are at first miners in the leaves, several inhabiting one mine, but I 
have not observed this. The young larvae are rather maggot-like, 
with brownish heads and pale bodies dotted with black, but as they 
grow they become greener and when about half an inch long, are 
olive-green with from four to six black dots on each segment and from 
each of these dots springs a short bristle. 
The head is dingy yellow marked with black, the six legs are black, 
the eight claspers green, and there is an indistinct dark line down the 
back and a whitish one along each side. The larva does not materially 
change in appearance until the last moult, which leaves it of a pale 
apple-green colour with a slightly darker line down the back, and a 
white one along each side, containing the spiracles, which are white, 
edged with brownish-black. The head is greenish-yellow and semi¬ 
transparent, and the legs and claspers green. The head and second 
and third segments are retractile, and the larva tapers gradually from 
tail to head and arches its body somewhat in crawling, after the manner 
of Plusiid larvte in general. 
In the last stage the larva feeds quite exposed on the leaves, which 
it closely resembles in colour. Besides monkshood (without doubt 
its proper pabulum) and larkspur, it has been recorded as feeding on 
the leaves of sunflower, cucumber, vegetable marrow, burdock and 
Jerusalem artichoke on the Continent, out it seems probable that in 
most of these cases the larvte had been disturbed, and were eating 
what they could find. It is full-fed in about a month, and then retires 
to the lowest leaves of the plant—which, by this time, have turned 
yellow — and spins on the underside of one a beautiful shuttle-shaped 
cocoon, furnished with a horizontal slit at one end, through which the 
moth emerges. This cocoon is either pure white or more or less tinged 
with yellow, and this variety in the colour has given rise to consider¬ 
able discussion. One writer 7 says that the cocoon is at first white, and 
is lined afterwards with yellow silk by the larva; this, however, does 
not explain why some cocoons remain white. Others have thought 
4 Ent., xxvi., p. 277. 
5 Ent., xxv., p. 253. 
(i Entomologist Record, vol. viii., p. 185. 
7 Ent. Rec., xvi., p. 132. 
xxii.-xxiii. 
