9Q [February, 



is found in April and pupates in tlie middle of May, the moth 

 emerging dui'ing the first fortnight of June." 



The fact that two D. splendideUa were taken by Major Eobertson 

 in a Scotch pine wood, where spruce was absent, suggests that the 

 larvae may have fed there in the manner i-ecorded by Duponchel, and 

 perhaps reliable evidence, unknown to me, may exist of their sometimes 

 feeding in this way in Britain. It is certain, however, that, in some 

 parts of this country, the larva shows entirely different habits, which 

 were clearly unknown to Eagonot when writing his Monograph, and 

 feeds throughout in the cones of Picea (Abies) excelsa (spruce fir), 

 more than one larva sometimes inhabiting a single cone, leaving these 

 in autumn when full-fed, wintering in a round flattish hibernaculum, 

 and pupating in spring, the moth emerging in June or July. Dr. J. H. 

 Wood used to find the larvae behaving thus in the Tarrington district 

 of Herefordshire, and the only imago that I have ever bred resulted 

 from a larva in a cone that was received from him on September 22nd, 

 1894, and emerged on June 15th, 1895. Dr. Wood, in 1874—1879, 

 supplied Mr. W. Buckler with some of these larvae, and the latter's 

 detailed notes, which include descriptions^ together with the results of 

 the former's experience with the insect, will be found in Eut. Mo. Mag., 

 xxiv, 269-272 (1888), and also in Buckler's " Lai-vae Brit. Butt, and 

 Moths," ix, 249-255 (1901), where, on Plate clviii, figures 8, 8a, and 

 8b, show the larva, while figure 8c represents the hibernaculum. 

 Buckler in his notebooks had used the name " alieteUa,'" but although 

 in Ent. Mo. Mag., xxiv, 269, Stainton expressed his firm belief, which 

 we know to have been correct, that Wood's (=: Buckler's) insect was 

 splendideUa, H.-S., the name " abieteUa " was unfortmiately retained 

 in the heading of Buckler's notes when reproduced, after his death, in 

 his " Larvae " (loc. cit.). From these we learn that, instead of behaving 

 like its fellows, a full-fed larva that evidently constructed its hiberna- 

 culum in the autumn of 1878, was still alive therein, and lying over, 

 in October, 1879, and that occasionally a full-fed larva forms no hiber- 

 naculum, but constructs, in the autumn, a true cocoon, the imago 

 emerging, as usual, in the following summer. In the latter case, I 

 expect that the larva pupates in the autumn, seeing that, as stated 

 above, Mr. Thurnall's larva of abieteUa, which formed a true cocoon in 

 the autumn, was found to have done so. Barrett [Lep. Brit. Isl., 

 ix, 416 (1904)] says of the larva of splendidella, though without 

 mentioning the source of his information, " August till May, in cones 

 of spruce fir {Finns ahies), feeding in them when quite small and 



