92 [September, 



males of the black form of the Laverna atra of our lists, not one of them, nor 

 indeed of any that I had seen, having any of the light colour on the inner margin of 

 the fore-wings, indicating what we specially know as L. atra, the dark form being 

 reputed to be a variety of it. 



The larva of the light-marked form is said to feed on hawthorn-berries, in Sep- 

 tember, that of the black one in budding shoots of apple in February and March 

 (Stainton's Manual, ii, p. 399). In the spring I have seen such larvse in the spurs 

 of apple trees on which the blossoms normally grow, but which, by the action of the 

 larvsB, are aborted. The autumnal larvae in the haw-berries I have not seen, nor do 

 I know if the black moth is ever produced therefrom, I get it only out of apple trees. 

 Neither am I prepared to give an opinion as to the specific identity or distinctness 

 of the two forms, which certainly are not specially separable respectively into sexes. 

 There may have been here, as in other instances, a concomitant continuous divergence 

 of plants and insects from an aboriginal stock, till species were established. 



But whether there be now one or two species, or whether the dark form be 

 Haworth's Recurvaria atra or not, which is to me a moot point, in any case it is 

 clear, I think, that the moth with the white vitta along the inner side of the fore- 

 wings cannot be regarded as the type of his i? . atra, which he thus describes : — 

 "Alls anticis toto atris, posticis toto nigris, ciliis profundissime plumbeis ;" and then 

 follow two varieties : /3, " Alis anticis margine interiore obsolete cinereo. An dis- 

 tincta species ?" J, "Alis anticis stria sen vitta, a basi marginis tenuioris post medium 

 usque ad costam, alba" (Lep. Brit., p. 554). Curiously, the latter is cited as the 

 type of Haworth's species, but if the light-marked form (the var. y of Haworth) be 

 proved to be distinct, it will want a name, unless indeed it be the Alucita Sellerella 

 of Duponchel, as Staudinger and Wocke put it (Catalog., p. 319, jS^o. 2584). Ela- 

 chista ptitripennella, Zeller, is also citeA by them as a synonym of L. Hellerella. 

 L. atra, type, is not mentioned. If, therefore, our dark form be specifically distinct 

 from the light one, and it be not accepted as the R. atra, Haworth, it also will be in 

 need of a name.* — J. W. Douglas, 8, Beaufort Gardens, Lewisham : July 2Qth, 1882. i 



Larva of Coriscium sulphurellum.— 'Ernst Hofmann, in his " Verzeichniss wiirt- 

 tembergischer Kleinschmetlerlinge," published in the " Jahresheften des Vereins 

 fiir vaterl. Naturkunde in Wiirttemberg, 1882," says of C. sulphurelhim, " Larva in 

 May in cone-shaped leaf-ends of honeysuckle. Pupa in a flat, oval cocoon." 



As this was quite news to me, I have sought diligently in other recent publica- 

 tions for confirmation of it. 



Snellen, in his " De Ylindcrs van JSTederland," of which the Micro-Lepidopterous 

 portion, extending to 1118 pages large octavo, appeared this year, saj-s of C. sulpha- 

 rellum, " Larva still unknown." Bossier, in his " Schuppenfliigler " of Wiesbaden, 

 published 1881, says of this species, " Once taken at the beginning of July near 

 alders, on which, according to Nolcken,tho gelatinous-looking dirty white larva with 

 a brownish head feeds in cone-shaped leaf-ends ; according to E. Hofmann on 

 honeysuckle." 



* It is possible that Herrich-Schaffer's Tebenna vinolentella may be intended for our black 

 apple feeder, which I have myself bred from larvje found in the middle of Jlay, in the stems 

 which bear the cluster of apple-blossoms, but lierrich-Schaffer says "found on vines in July." — 

 H. T. !?. 



