30 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



the notice of De Geer. Specimens can be readily found upon 

 rose trees in July and October, mining in serpentine galleries 

 tlie under side of the leaf, but coming out at the upper side, 

 and spinning a cocoon at the footstalk of a leaf, or nnder a 

 projecting thorn. There is another leaf-miner on the rose, N. 

 Anguli-fasciella, much prettier, having dark wings, and a 

 curved silver band across ; and in the larva state they may be 

 distinguished by the Anomalella being amber-coloured, and 

 the other of a pale green. Three or four of these little miners 

 are often found on the same leaf, in which case they cross 

 each other's path, and make the tracing of a single mine rather 

 difficult. 



LithocoUetis stetinensis [Arguromiyes) (Fig. 7) is a beautifid 

 moth, one of a family containing seventy species, so delicately 

 small, and yet so brilliant, that naturalists have called them the 

 humming-birds of the Lepidoptera. The larvse are extremely 

 abundant on the elm, maple, honej^suckle, scabious, oak, and 

 nut trees. Some species mine the u])per and some the lower 

 cuticle of a leaf. It is found that the larva of a Lithocollct>s 

 never quits its mine, but changes therein to a pupa ; and the 

 empty pupa-skin may be found protruding from a slit in the 

 cuticle after the escape of the perfect nisect. The Nepticidcc 

 always emerge from the mine, and fix themselves to a stalk or 

 a dead leaf for transformation. There is but one exception, 

 and that is with Nepticula septemhrella, Avhich mines the 

 leaves of Hypericum prdchrum (small upright St. John's 

 wort) in autumn, making extremely slender mines around 

 and across the small leaves ; when full fed, they pucker 

 the leaf a little, and form a cocoon inside the mine. Again, 

 the larva of a LithocoUetis more or less contorts the leaf, 

 which Nepticula does not, and carpets the loosened cuticle 

 with silk, pulling it so tight that not only does the skin 

 pucker, but the opposite side of the leaf is drawn into a 

 curve. 



Tischeria inar(/inea (Fig. 8), a pretty moth, may be seen in 

 May and August flitting over the brambles, or, as in the 

 plate, sitting with folded wings, closely pressed to the sub- 

 stance u])on which it rests, with its head slightly raised, and 



