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nated eggs change in exactly the same way. Mr. Buckler established 
the fact that hectus and velleda take two years to mature. In a letter to 
me, dated June 23rd, 1868, he says :—“I quite despair of rearing any 
Hepialus from the egg, because some of them, if not all, are two 
seasons in the larval condition, as I have proved with two species, 
but what these two are is just what I should like to know ;—I believe 
hectus and velleda ,—but, until I can produce the moths am not in a 
position to give their history.” A week later, June 30th, 1868, he 
wrote :—“ I am very much obliged to you for the eggs of hectus, but 
since I penned you my letter I have bred the moth from the larva I had 
figured, and I will here say that I never had any species so troublesome 
to manage, or such a trial of my patience. They were in perpetual 
motion, to coerce them was impossible, for they jumped and ran 
backward as rapidly as forward.” He further says:—“The other species, 
which I hope may prove to be velleda , certainly without the slightest 
doubt, do take two seasons to come to maturity, as full-fed larvae can 
be found, and others not more than a quarter, some one-third grown 
at the same time, and long before the earliest moth of the species 
could be out, and the little ones grow very slowly all through the 
summer and autumn of their second season. I have their history 
complete enough if I could only breed the moth; but this season I 
have only one to depend on, and I fear the time is almost past for 
its emerging.” The moth, however, was bred, and the history 
completed. The Rev. John Hellins, referring to humuli , which he 
reared from eggs, sent him by Mr. Porritt and myself, says they 
began to hatch on 24th July, were noticed on August 19th, September 
13th, and October 26th, and “from the rate of growth observed at 
these dates, I am inclined to think that one year would suffice for the 
whole life of these species, the larval stage lasting from August till the 
next May; but, of course, I cannot speak positively ” (Larva, vol. ii., 
p. 131). I had considerable personal experience with larvae of humuli 
some years ago, and have dug up hundreds of them, but they were 
always alike in size at the same season. I never found some full- 
grown, and some a third or quarter-grown, at the same time. Of the 
other too, lupulinus and sylvinus , I can find no observations recorded ; 
but the little knowledge I have of the former species, leads me to the 
conclusion, that, like humuli, it passes through all its changes in a 
single year. Sylvinus larvae I never had. The larvae of all the 
species feed on roots and underground stems ; but I scarcely think 
they are exclusively confined to a single plant. Buckler gives bracken 
(Pteris aquilina ) only, as the food of hectus and velleda, and I never 
found either where bracken did not abound. Owen Wilson, however, 
adds dandelion root as a food of hectus; and it seems a very likely 
thing for it to feed on. Dock is the only food named by Buckler for 
sylvinus; but I have taken it freely where there is certainly no dock 
near. Owen Wilson adds dandelion and sorrell. I am disposed to 
think it must eat bracken also. I have found larvae of hionuli at roots 
of dead-netttle, and in the creeping root of bog-mint. Owen Wilson 
gives burdock, hop, daffodil, dock, musk-thistle, black horehound, and 
stinging-nettle. It probably feeds on many others. For lupulinus , 
Wilson gives white dead-nettle, daffodil, black horehound, and plaintain. 
This larva most certainly feeds on others than these. Mr. Buckler 
speaks of the great aversion from light evinced by the larva of hectus i and 
