• () [November 



Ji transparent wings and quite free from tlie characteristic white 

 waxy substance which soon afterwards makes its appearance on both 

 body and wings. 



The pupae are subject to attack by a black Chalcid parasite, of 

 which the eggs are apparently laid within the silken covering, as I 

 have seen the female fly tearing the latter with her jaws and inserting 

 her head. 



The adult Coniopterygidae probably take little food, although I 

 have seen them licking up tiny drops of honey-dew from the leaves. By 

 July 2oth those w^hich had emerged first in captivity were dead and, 

 although I failed to discover the eggs, about the same time minute 

 newly-born larvae made their appearance, their bodies colourless and 

 very short. The Phylloxeras were becoming much diminished in 

 numbers, I believe chiefly owing to the activities of the Conwentzias, 

 which, although accompanied by a variety of other aphidivorous insects 

 {Scymnus capifatiis, Hemerohius, Chrysopa. etc.), greatly outnumbered 

 them all. By the end of August the oaks had become practically free 

 from Phylloxero and the second generation of Comoentzia larvae had, 

 in the main, reached their full gi-owth (they appeared to me to attain a 

 rather larger size than those of the summer generation). They showed 

 no disposition to spin cocoons upon the leaves, like the latter, but instead 

 left them and made their waji" to the trunk of the tree, over which, 

 during the first week of September, numbers of them Avere running back- 

 wards and forwards, evidently in search of convenient crannies in Avhich 

 to hibernate. Probably most of them construct their cocoons high vip, 

 bvit many descend almost to the ground. The cocoons are often in 

 groups of two or three and, having to be adapted to recesses of var^'ing 

 shape, are, of course, irregular, and not circular like the svunmer cocoons. 

 Larvae of the second brood kept in confinement refused to spin upon 

 leaves, unless quite dr}^ or upon smooth bark, but preferred the angle at 

 the bottom of the jar in which they were kept. The silken envelopes 

 were sometimes extremely thin, so that they could be quite easily seen 

 through them. As stated by Enderlein, they do not change their form, 

 but lie motionless with the body bent into a semicircle, all the legs 

 brought together but the antennae extended. 



As to the correct determination of the species here described, it is 

 no doubt the same as that recently named by Mr. Bagnall in this Maga- 

 zine Conioentzia cryptoneuris (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1915, p. 192), its wing- 

 venation agreeing ; but I see no reason for separating it from the 

 C psociformis so long ago described by Curtis. It is not C. pineiieola. 



