i«r9.] 187 



Variety of the larva of Abraxas grossnJariata. — At a meeting of the Hudders- 

 field Scientific Club, held on the 1 4th June last, Mr. S. L. Mosley showed examples of 

 a remarkably dark form of this larva. He had received them from Mr. J. E. Eobson, 

 of Hartlepool, vi\\o wrote him that a colony of the form usually occurred there. Mr. 

 Mosley kindly gave me one of them, which I preserved. It differs from the strikingly 

 marked usual form in being almost uniformly sooty-black : there is no trace of the 

 reddish lateral stripe below the spiracles ; and the yellow, or cream colour, only shows 

 a little on the second segment, and on the ventral area as a narrow central stripe, in- 

 terrupted, except between the legs and pro-legs, at the segmental divisions. The only 

 other mai'kings are two small pale spots on \\\e front of segments 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, and 

 laterally on segments 10 and 11. The appearance altogether is so different from the 

 usual form, that at first sight I had no idea what the larvee were ; and on placing my 

 preserved specimen in the cabinet along with the broad black bordered variety of the 

 imago, it seemed to correspond with it exactly. Unfortunately for that theory, how- 

 ever, these black larvae at Hartlepool only produce the most ordinary form of the 

 imago. — Geo. T. Poeeitt, Highroyd House, Huddersfield : December 5th, 1878. 



Description of the larva of Tinea orientalis. — Since the description of the 

 imago in the November number (see ante, p. 134), I have succeeded in discovering 

 the larva, which was exhibited at the East-London Entomological Society, on 27th 

 November. I have described it as follows : — Length about 8 lines. Colour dirty 

 whitish, shining, no perceptible hairs ; head reddish-brown ; 2nd and 3rd segments 

 yellowish on the back, sides whitish, overlapping and swollen, giving the larva the 

 appearance of having a hood ; dorsal vessel blackish ; legs reddish. The larva feeds 

 in a very tough silken case, in buffalo horn, making galleries quite through the horn. 

 On a future occasion I liope to be able to give a description of the pupa. — C. W. 

 Simmons, 8, Gough Street, Stainsby Eoad, Poplar, E. : November 28th, 1878. 



Ifeiu British species of Phycidce. — I have much pleasure in recording the capture 

 of a species of knot-horn new to Britain, which I identified, by examination of the 

 foreign collection in the British Museum, as Enzophera oblitella of Zeller. The fol- 

 lowing is a description of the one specimen I captured : — Front wings greyish, dusted 

 with darker ; both lines black, the first preceded, the second followed, by a pale band ; 

 nearly midway between the two is a conspicuous black spot ; near the base, and 

 almost touching the costa, is another black spot; hind wings pearly-grey, gradually 

 darkening to the hind margin. Expanse of wings, 8 lines. 



The specimen is in beautiful condition, and was taken on the south-west coast of 

 the Isle of Wight in the autumn of 1876. I have not identified it until lately. 



There is only one specimen in the British Museum Collection. In Staudinger's 

 Catalogue, Hungary, Sarepta (South-East Eussia), South France, Andalusia, and 

 Sicily are recorded as localities. — J. B. Blackburn, care of Kev. J. Buckmastee, 

 The Vicarage, Wandsworth : 2lth November, 1878. 



[The insect above mentioned was first described by Zeller in the Isis of 1848 ; 

 he then placed it in the genus Ephestia, near interpunctella ; now it is referred to 

 the genus Enzophera, and its nearest allies, known to us as British species, are E. 

 pinffuis. Haw., and E. cinerosella, Z. (artemisieUa, Stn.). 



The generic name Euzophera appears in the Stettin, ent. Zeitung, 1867, p. 377, 



