26 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



it that the reader may compare it with my own observations as hereinafter 

 detailed. The only point in which my observations differ essentially from 

 those of Mr. Stainton, is that I find the duration of the pupa state as 

 hereinafter shown to be only one week, instead of " a few weeks," but 

 this may perhaps be accounted for by difference of season or temperature. 



Partial life histories of many species of Tineids have been heretofore 

 published, but very few full or detailed ones ; and the only attempt at a 

 complete history of any species of Gracilaria that I have met, is Mr. 

 Healy's account of the larva of G. syringella, in the Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine, v. iv., p. 150, ct seq., and unfortunately I have seen 

 only the last two parts of it ; and therefore I do not know what 

 account he gives of the structure of the mouth parts, nor of the ecdysis 

 in the earlier stages of the species. Mr. Healy states that syringella 

 frequently goes under the ground to pupate, and in this respect it appears 

 to be singular in this genus, but probably it only does this in confinement. 

 His account of its manner of rolling and fastening the leaf and of making 

 its cocoon is characteristic, I think, of the larger species of this genus — 

 the true Gracilarice. I infer from Mr. Healy's concluding remarks {loc. 

 cit. pp. 176 and 197) that syringella passes through only four larval stages. 

 Thus he states that when the larva first leaves the mine " it crawls to the 

 under side of another leaf, the tip of which it rolls downward ; " that 

 " after a few days residence in the rolled leaf the larva moults for the 

 second time." My observations on stigmatella and other species of the 

 genus lead me to the conclusion that there are two moults in the mine, 

 and that the moult which Mr. Healy calls the second is really the third ; 

 and that the first stage, and first moult of syringella (in which it has trophi 

 of what I have elsewhere denominated the " first form," and membranous 

 thoracic feet) escaped his observation. Mr. Healy only mentions two 

 other moults later than that which he calls the second, making according 

 to his account only four larval stages. But the species whose larval his- 

 tory I have observed (stigmatella, rhoifoliella, robiniella and salicifoliella) all 

 have five larval stages ; and in the first stage all have the trophi and feet as 

 above stated, so that I think it probable that the first moult, which 

 takes place when the larva is not more than 85 m. m. long, escaped Mr. 

 Healy's observation. But as above stated, I have not seen the first part 

 of his paper. 



Mr. Stainton mentions a slight difference between the habits of stigmatella 

 when found on " white poplar " and when found on willows ; that is, the 



