^8G THE entomologist's record. 



doois, and, when full-grown, pupated in the old corks and raspberry 

 canes, with which they were provided, and also in the collection of 

 frass at the bottom of the bag. I believe that this experience is worth 

 recording. A. tridens is not usually double- brooded, and my specimens 

 were fed up in the open air, their surroundings being almost natural, 

 I see that Dr. Chapman in his paper " The genus Acronycta and its 

 allies" {Ent. Record, vol. i., pp. 7^-75) says, ^^ llimiicis and tridois are 

 the only species that I have observed to make fairly successful attempts 

 to be double-brooded, but I fancy in a state of nature they are usually 

 unsuccessful ; that is, that the specimens that emerge in the autumn,, 

 do not do so early enough to give their progeny time to certainly feed 

 up before winter. The first brood of tridens that I reared, in 1886, 

 divided itself into two portions, one of which came out in the beginning 

 of August, and the other remained over until the following year. This, 

 experience has not occurred to me since." 



My whole number of specimens is small, owing to a foolish error 

 of manipulation. (How often this occurs !) In replacing the bag when 

 changing food I carelessly included several twigs of the plum tree. 

 The unexpected, of course, happened, and a large number of my A. 

 tridens sought, through the gap, a place for pupation outside the bag. 



Mr. Eaynor and I worked this plan at Brentwood, in the eighties, 

 and succeeded in getting a brood of A. tridens without much 

 trouble. I should like to hear that collectors in different parts of the 

 country had thus secured specimens of various local races, which would 

 necessarily add much to one's knowledge, and to the interest of our 

 collections. 



Note on the rush=feeding Coleophorids — Coleophora glaucicolella, etc. 



By HENIIY J. TURNER, F.E.S. 



The first Coleophorid species that I obtained in 1904, was one of 

 the rush-feeders, of which about a dozen larvte were sent me on 

 March 22nd, from Epping Forest, by Mr. Bacot. I at once proceeded 

 to examine and describe them, and afterwards compared the description 

 with Dr. Wood's descriptions of Coleophora caes/iititieUa and C. 

 (jlaucieolella. It should be stated, first of all, that the cases were very 

 small, consistmg of only a semi-transparent, shiny membrane, extremely 

 thin, and with the least amount of stiffness. The front end was- 

 covered more or less by very fine dust from the debris of the seeds, 

 which were being consumed by the larMi, and hence had a dirty brown 

 appearance, while the shape of the anal end was difficult to determine,, 

 either it was a mere irregular screw, or roughly 2-valved ; at all events 

 there was an opening, but of its shape there was no definite appearance 

 common to any two. Taking out a larva from its case, 1 noted its 

 chief characteristics with a pocket lens : — 



" Yellowish-brown. Head black, plates on the segments which bore them black. 

 The 1st thoracic segment possessed a black dorsal plate, covering the whole top of 

 the segment, cleft down the middle by a suture, almost closed in front, but more- 

 apparent at the back. The mesothorax with a small elongated dorsal plate, 

 obscurely divided down the centre, and a spot on each side a little more forward. 

 These were all black and well set back on the segment, so as to be frequently 

 covered by the overlapping of the metathorax in the intersegmental contraction 

 occurring with the movements of the larva. The metathorax was without a black 

 plate. The anal segment had a distinctly well-foi-med black dorsal plate, and 

 the pro- and mesothorax had small spiracular plates, all black." 



