'}_Q4s [December, 



by Mr. Sang is extremely interesting in many respects. It does not, however, agree 

 with Von Noleken's description of his Swammerdamla larva on mountain-ash, which 

 he referred to S. compunctella, H.-S. 



Von Nolcken found his larva in early spring, as soon as the leaf-buds of the 

 Sorbus aucupar'ia develope towards the end of April (in the Island of Oesel), in 

 small companies of two to four specimens in a loose thin web. The perfect insects 

 appeared from May 26th to the beginning of July, mostly in the first half of June. 

 The larva was dull greenish-yellow, with a pale whitish-orange dorsal stripe, divided 

 by a very fine brownish-orange central line, and reddish-brown sub-dorsal stripes : 

 head pale brownish-yellow. Mr. Sang's autumnal feeding larva, as described by me, 

 was — " Green, with darker gi'een dorsal and sub-dorsal lines, spots minute, dark grey ; 

 "head black ; second segment above with two grey-green blotches." 



Von Noleken's S. compunctella larva differs from all others of the genus in pas- 

 sing the winter either as a young larva or in the egg state. All the other species of 

 the genus, of which the habits are known, pass the winter in the pupa state, and the 

 merry little moths gladden our eyes with their gambols in those first warm days of 

 spring, when all nature seems bursting into life. — H. T. Stainton, Mountsfield, 

 Lewishara : Nor'embe)- 12th, 1879. 



Descrijjtion of the larva of Gelechia liicnlella, and its habits. — As I believe the 

 life-history of this insect is very imperfectly known, this note on the subject may 

 not be uninteresting. I believe that hitherto only the hibernating larvae of this 

 species have been noticed, and the feeding larv£e had escaped observation. I had 

 collected last autumn larv£e of Stigmonota nitidana for Mr. C. G. Barrett, when that 

 gentleman, with his usual acumen, wrote me word that he thought I had sent him 

 two kinds. In the meanwhile I had also become alive to the fact that the oak-leaves 

 contained two larvae that eventually proved to be 8tigmonota nitidana and Gelechia 

 luculella, whose manner of life was so similar, that an inspection of the leaf alone 

 was insufficient to separate them, though the separation was easy enough if the 

 occupant itself were examined, for the two larvse, as might be expected, are quite 

 different in form and markings. The larva of Gelechia luculella then either spins 

 two leaves together, or lives — and this is the more common way — on the under-side 

 of a single leaf that has been previously curved by some summer-feeding species. 

 In the former case it sometimes still further protects itself by a weak gallery of frass, 

 but in the latter, that is, when occupying only a single leaf, the gallery is always 

 present, and is sti'ong and well-developed, reminding one of that of a knot-horn. 

 The larva is whitish-gi-een, with the spots black, prominent, and conspicuous. Head 

 amber-coloured ; plate also amber-coloured, but marked with black spots and streaks, 

 which make it, to the naked eye, appear darker than the head. The larva is hatched 

 probably about the end of August, and is to be found up to the first and even second 

 week in October, but the latter half of September is the most profitable time to 

 look for it. 



The firm compact cocoon constructed of frass or debris is generally in confine- 

 ment placed in situ, but in a state of nature, I believe the larva forsakes its old 

 quarters, and in this respect differs from S. nitidana, and seeks some other place to 

 make up in. At any rate, the cocoon of S. nitidana is commonly found between the 

 leaves it has fed in, but I have never so found G. luailella, and the larvaj previously 



