NOTES ON COLEOPHORIDS — COLEOPHORA ARGENTULA. 9 



found on the heads of flowers, but only on heads in which the seeds 

 were fully formed. Probably the larvae do not hatch until this occurs, 

 although the ova may be laid among the flowers. An isolated plant 

 rarely produced a larva, but often as many as eight cases were obtained 

 from each of several heads in a large cluster of the plants, and scarcely 

 one head did not produce at least two. Most of the cases were vi ry 

 soft, and of a dusty brown appearance, from the thick coating of 

 pollen and anther dSbris, frass and nibblings of the seed, and seed- 

 vessels, so that, although they are perfectly white and conspicuous at 

 first, they very soon become protected, and are then most difficult to ee. 

 Usually the cases are deeply embedded in the umbel, and some larvae 

 attack the seed-vessels from below, so that it is only by close scrutiny 

 that they are discovered, and one rises from the search with the 

 feeling that, in all probabilty, several have escaped notice. I brought 

 home a large bunch of heads of seed to serve as a reserve of food, and 

 on which close search had produced no further larvae, yet some live 

 days subsequently, no less than twenty-five new cases were obtained 

 on them, and later on others appeared. This would seem to point to 

 the fact that the ova do not hatch until the seeds are fully developed, 

 and also that the early instar, or instars, of the larva are spent in the 

 seeds without a case. The seed-vessels are usually very close together, 

 so that it is often found that a larva will pass from one to another, 

 safe-guarding itself, however, by fastening the old and newly-attacked 

 seeds together with silk. 



The cases, which are extremely thin and fragile at first, gradually 

 become harder and stiffen. In many instances, the larva makes a long 

 silken gallery in the seeds, and this is attached to the mouth of the 

 case and is soft and crumpled. The anal end of the case is tbree- 

 valved, not pointed, but abruptly cut off", the adpressed edges of the 

 valves show white in the older cases from the slight protrusion of the 

 white inner lining. In general shape the case is cylindrical, gradually 

 contracting fore and aft. At the base of the valves the constriction is 

 slight, the adpressed sutures of the valves projecting somewhat. The 

 neck of the case is also slightly constricted, but the edge of the mouth- 

 opening, in cases without t he attached gallery, is not turned out. The 

 mouth-opening is turned down, so that the case lies almost prone on a 

 flat sin face, or, as Heinemann styles it, in position ]. 



The larvae are most contenti d, and wander but little, which is the 

 more remarkable as those of mi bher members of the gem 

 particularly restless and vagrant. On one occasion a bunch of b 

 thrown on the floor of the conservatory and left for a week or ten day-. 

 was found to contain more than two dozen larva'. Cases enclosed on 

 their food in glass-topped tins often remained in one position for 

 . during which time the cases became hard and stiff from the 

 inmr lining of silk, and the attachment of dust fragments on the out- 

 side. The surface of the cas< Is rough, and tin se pari icL g< I atta< bed 

 to the irregularities and become matted. It was a mosi can 

 a larva to leave the food and gel on the gla - of the box. 



The larvae have four pairs of abdominal legs, or remnants of legs, 

 which it is quite impossible to see, except when the larvae are moving. 

 They are hidden, as a rule, in cavities and can only be observed if the 

 larva be held between the thumb and finger on its back, and can be 

 induced to exhibit a kind of peristaltic movement of the 



