1891. 1 109 



The ovlposifion and autumnal larva of Lampronia rubiella. — The egg of L. 

 ruhiella is laid when the raspberry is in flower ; I have twice seen the process take 

 place, and on one occasion besides saw it faiL The motli sek^cts a fully open flower, 

 and, without any prolonged examination, insinuates her lerminal segments in the 

 angle formed at the base of the stamens outside, between them and the calyx seg- 

 ments, seating herself on the stamens. The spear with which the ovipositor is armed 

 pierces the substance of the receptacle in this angle, and the egg is placed in the 

 substance of the receptacle at a depth from the surface about equal to its own 

 diameter. On one occasion on which I saw the whole process it occupied about two 

 and a half minutes ; on the other the mother had some difiiculty in extracting the 

 spear after the operation was completed, and finally did so with a jerk — nothing of 

 this sort occurred in the other case. The futile attempt was made by a moth on a 

 not fully opened ilower, which still had the calyx segments erect, and she sat outside 

 them and tried to insert the extremity of the abdomen between these, but without 

 success. 



The egg is rounder than in Adela, Micropteryx or Incurvaria, but I have not 

 got its measurements. When the raspberry is ripe and is removed by human or 

 other agency, the larva of rubiella is in the fleshy white receptacle, but is ready to 

 quit it, and does so immediately. In one such receptacle were two larvte. So far 

 as I could see, their presence does not interfere with the due development and 

 ripening of the fruit. 



The larva is nearly 3 mm. long, rather robust and fairly active ; it reminds one 

 very much of the larva of Carpocapsa pomonella, not only in its colouring, but in its 

 general outline and proportions. The whole larva is, however, of a deeper tint, it 

 is pink througliout and dorsally of a deep, bright pink ; there is a very marked 

 pink dorsal line from the 4th segment backwards. It is, indeed, very like, or de- 

 cidedly smaller than, the larva that may be found in April in the buds or shoots 

 that it kills.' 



The larvae that I took were very unhappy in a glass jar, portions of raspberry 

 stem, leaves of raspberry, and sawdust, gave them no comfort. A close search among 

 the sawdust revealed somewhat later a larva contained in a very small cocoon ; the 

 cocoon is round and flat, an extremely oblate spheroid, or say cheese or lozenge- 

 shaped, the silk white, very tough and dense, firmer and thicker round the margin, 

 and the larva is so much larger than the cocoon, that it has to coil itself up in it 

 marginally. The cocoon is li mm. in diameter, and barely ^ mm. thick. 



If I have given the impression that the larva can only escape by the fruit being 

 removed, I am wrong, as though the larva does not apparently despise this easier 

 mode of egress, its proper proceeding is to make a hole in the base close to the 

 footstalk. On its escape it no doubt proceeds to the base of the stem in the " stool " 

 of the plant, and passes the winter in such a cocoon as that I have described, 

 emerging thence in the spring, and continuing its life history as already well known. 

 — T. A. Chapman, Hereford : 2Iay, 1891. 



PerilUus falciger ; a parasite in a perfect beetle. — This very interesting species 

 has been bred from Timarcha laevigata by the Kev. John Isabell, who boxed three 

 beetles, brought to him at the Land's End by Mr. Cranford on March 30th. On 

 examining the box the following day he observed that a number of larvaj had escaped 



