1S86.J 89 



I saw many leaves where they had been feeding, but all the larvse had disappeared, 

 no doubt to pupate in some suitable place, so tliat I was evidently just too late for 

 them. However, I had sufficient for my purpose, which was to try and breed 

 them and so ascertain what they really were. They all spun up the next day, some 

 on the leaves and some among the rubbish at the bottom of the cage. They all made 

 pure white cocoons very similar to those of a Swammerdamia. On the 17th of 

 July the first imago appeared, a most beautiful deep orange coloured-specimen, and 

 two more the following day. I was much pleased to see they were as I had ex- 

 pected, Zelleria hepariella. 



The larvae are rather slender, tapering towards each end, of a light transparent 

 green colour, with very dark dorsal line; head yellowish - brown ; legs yellow; 

 extremely nervous and timid, dropping from the food at the slightest touch. They 

 feed in the shoots, or tips of the leaves, drawing them together by a slight web and 

 gnawing them into large holes ; they are full-fed the end of June, the imago appear- 

 ing the middle of July.— Geo. Elisha, 122, Shepherdess Walk, City Eoad, N. : 

 Julif I9th, 1886. 



Zelleria hepariella. — This insect was bred by me more than a third of a century 

 ago, and it is only now that I begin to suspect where I obtained the cocoon whence 

 the moth emerged on the 27th July, 1852. The fact that I had bred the species 

 was noted by me in the " Entomologist's Companion," 2nd Edition, p. 60, and in the 

 " Insecta Britaimica ; Lepidoptera Tineina," p. 192, where I remarked of the only 

 three species of the genus then known (hepariella, insignipennella and fasciapen- 

 nella) ; " the larvae of none of them are known, though (to my shame be it said) I 

 have myself bred hepariella, but have no recollection of the larva ; in the cage in 

 which I bred it was an asA-leaf, that had evidently been eaten ; it emerged from its 

 thick white cocooii on the 27th July, 1852 (the day on which Prof. Zeller finished 

 his visit to England)." I also recorded this same event in the 11th vol. of the 

 " Natural History of the Tineina," p. 9-4, but it always remained a mystery. 



Professor Zeller was 15 days in England in July, 1852, and was naturally eager 

 to see as many of our collecting localities as possible in the short time he was here ; 

 we went to Charlton sand-pit, to West Wickham Wood, to Mickleham and to 

 Sanderstead. 



We were at Mickleham on the 18th July, and I have now no doubt the ash-leaf, 

 with the white cocoon, which produced so unexpectedly Zelleria hepariella, was 

 picked then and there. 



Guided by Mr. Elisha's experience, recorded above, a ray of light has dawned 

 upon me, and the locality (hitherto a terra incognita) for my ash-leaf seems revealed. 



The cocoon may be compared either with thdjt of a Sivammerdamia or that of an 

 Argyresthia ; in all the three genera the larvae spin thick white cocoons. — H. T. 

 Stainton, Mountsfield, Lewisham, S.E. : August lOth, 1886. 



Description of the larva of Gehchia vilella, Zell.—lw the Eut. Mo. Mag. for 

 February last (vol. xxii, p. 212) T recorded the breeding of Gelechia vilella, Z., in 

 1870, from larvae collected full-fed on the Essex coast in the July of that year. I 

 am now able to give some account of the young larva and its mode of feeding. 



