lOG [October, 



I at ouce wrote to Mr. Barrett, and sent him one of the Wiesbaden 

 larvse, and a copy of Dr. Rossler's letter thereaneut. 



The larva I described as follows : — " Length 4 lines. Deep red, 

 paler between the segments, especially anteriorly, where the prevailing 

 colour is pale yellowish-white ; head pale yellowish-brown." 



It reminded me considerably of the larva of Oeleehia alhipalpella. 



As I was leaving home very soon afterwards, I sent off to Mr. 

 Barrett the remaining larvse I had received from Wiesbaden. 



On the 20th of August, Mr. Barrett wrote to me as follows : — 

 " Tour absence from home prevented me from forwarding you native 

 larvaB of Laverna suh-histrigella. I found them in plenty as soon as you 

 told me how to look for them, and, as usual, now wonder I had not 

 found them before. 



" I cannot altogether agree with Dr. Eossler that there is no 

 external indication of the presence of the larva in a seed-pod, since I 

 could tell the infested pods at a glance, and collect them with ease 

 without close examination. They are in nearly every case thickened 

 and shortened, and generally curved or distorted in some degree, as 

 you will see by two or three that I have enclosed. Those you sent had 

 burst open, and I could not very well tell whether they were similar. 



" The larvae in this neighbourhood were by no means so forward as 

 the continental ones ; but they seem now to have all spun up, and one 

 native specimen has come out. They appear to be sadly infested -svith 

 ichneumons. 



" The larva evidently eats its way up the pod, devouring the seeds 

 right before it, and leaving the space filled with excrement behind it. 

 When the pod is small, and does not contain sufficient food for it, it 

 leaves the empty pod, and attacks a younger one, making scarcely any 

 mark where it has entered. 



" When full fed, it leaves the pod by a larger hole, and spins up — I 

 expect on the ground. 



" In this it differs from the larva of decorella, which makes its 

 cocoon in the gall in which it has fed; this, however, is a necessity, as 

 the seed-pods, even when empty, burst when dry in the same way as 

 the full ones. 



" L. sub-histrijella seems almost confined to Mpilohium montanum ; 

 I have only once found it on any other species, and tliat was 

 E. 2>'^iustre." 



The pleasure I derived from the perusal of the above commu- 

 nication can be easier conceived tliau described. 



