182 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



of birds as Mr. Curtis knows of the psychology of insects, but I fail 

 to see what bearing his remarks on the British Marsh Tit {Panis 

 palxstn's var. (Iresseri) have on the point. I still maintain that the 

 published records of the attacks of birds on moths on tree trunks, or 

 in undergrowth, or on butterflies u-hen at rest, are quite infinitesimal 

 when the enormous number of these insects, and the often quite local 

 occurrence of many is taken into consideration, and do not warrant 

 the assumption that the cryptic coloration is the result of the weeding 

 out by such attacks. 



(To be continued.) 



Some Notes on the Early Stages of Cemiostoma laburnella. 



By ALFEED sigh, F.E.S. 



In the late summer of 1908 I noticed that there was a plentiful 

 supply of material for the study of the life cycle of the beautiful Tineid 

 moth, Ceiiiiostowa laburnella, on, in and about a small laburnum tree 

 in the garden at Chiswick. I therefore took the opportunity of finding 

 out some details connected with the economy of this species, and the 

 notes on the observations I then made and have made since, form the 

 basis of this paper. 



The milky-grey Qgg is laid on the underside of the leaf of the 

 laburnum, and the larva on hatching eats its way through the base of 

 the egg-shell into the interior of the leaf. Once in the leaf it mines 

 spirally towards the upper surface until it lies just below the upper 

 cuticle of the leaf. This first part of the mine shows as a reddish- 

 brown blotch about 1mm. in diameter and is visible on both sides of 

 the leaf. On the underside of the leaf, usually in the centre of this 

 blotch, lies the vacated egg-shell. This is only partly filled with 

 excrement and appears in certain angles of light as a speck of gold- 

 dust. The larva, in its first instar, is now not quite 1mm. in length. 

 The prothorax is wide and swollen and acts, I think, as a thrusting- 

 block to the head when the larva is feeding. The body is pale grey 

 with the canal yellowish-green. There are neither legs nor prolegs 

 and the little caterpillar lies perfectly helpless when taken from the 

 mine. When the larva has completed this small blotch it lies up for 

 the first change of skin. After this is accomplished the larva, now in 

 its second instar, commences a narrow gallery mine which runs right 

 away from the blotch usually to a distance of 4mm. This gallery, 

 but for a slender line on each side, is filled with black excrement. 



The larva in this stage is much like that in the first instar, but 

 the thorax is not swollen. There are traces of the foot-like pads on 

 the thoracic segments, but the larva is quite inactive. At the end of 

 the gallery the larva prepares for the second change of skin, hiding 

 itself partly under the excrement, its head lying at about 1mm. from 

 the end of the mine. On the prothorax there is a conspicuous dark 

 spot. The larva mines dorsum uppermost. After this change the 

 larva, now in the third instar, shows that it has somewhat developed ; 

 the pads on the thoracic segments are now furnished with claws 

 and there are four pairs of prolegs, those on the fourth and fifth 

 abdominal segments being stronger than the other two pairs. These 

 two middle pairs are so strong that the larva can stand on them alone 



