THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



L. cephalanthiella Cham. 



The description of this species, ante v. J, p. 221, is very unsatis- 

 factory, but it is next to impossible to describe satisfactorily these small 

 species of many colors irregularly mixed and blended, and varying with 

 every change of the light, especially when, as in this instance, there is 

 considerable range of variation within the limits of the species. No 

 difficulty will, however, be experienced in recognizing bred specimens, and 

 no species has yet been discovered in this country which approaches it at 

 all closely ; and until some such species is discovered, the following gen- 

 eral description of the fore wings will perhaps assist one in recognizing 

 the species more than a more detailed one : 



Varying in different specimens from ochreous dusted and overlaid with 

 brownish gray, to brownish gray streaked or marbled with ochreous ; that 

 is, the proportion of the two colors varies greatly in different specimens, 

 and even appears to vary in the same specimen according to the direction 

 of the light and the power of the lens used in observing it. The grayish 

 or brownish-gray parts of the wing have metallic reflections, and in some 

 views it is a very pretty and in others a very plain insect ; there is a large 

 blackish tuft on the dorsal margin about the middle, and usually the 

 portion of the disc above and behind this tuft is distinctly ochreous, con- 

 taining a longitudinal blackish short streak ; there is also a similar tuft 

 about the anal angle ; there are two costal blackish streaks behind the 

 middle, and a third passes entirely around the apex ; the apical half (and 

 a little more) of the wing is more ochreous than the basal half, and the 

 part of the wing behind the second tuft and before the second blackish 

 costal streak is distinctly ochreous, with or containing a short blackish 

 longitudinal dash (like that in the ochreous patch above the first tuft 

 above mentioned). The ochreous of the wings has a reddish hue ; the 

 cilise are pale ochreous tipped with blackish and with a blackish hinder 

 marginal line just before the tips. Apex of the fore wings obtuse. 



In the statement, loc. cii., that the mine and larvae resemble those of 

 Aspidisca, the word " larva " is a lapsus pennae, though it is correct as to 

 the mine. The mine, however, is more like that of an Antispila than of 

 an Aspidisca ; that is, the mine of the well-grown larva — its last mine — 

 which is always, so far as I have seen them, (and I have seen a great 

 many) near the edge of the leaf; but the young larva, before it makes 

 that mine, usually makes two or three short linear mines beginning at the 

 midrib. The imago does not resemble at all closely any species known 



