9^ fSeptotnber 



Abundance of Lithocolletis platani, Stdgr., at Pallanza. — On the lOtli of last 

 month (July), I arrired at Pallanza on the Lago Maggiore from the Val d'Anzasca, 

 and at once set to work to examine the neighbourhood of the town. The elms, 

 acacias, &c., on the shore of the lake only afforded shade sufficient to make the in- 

 tense heat more apparent ; so I started for the country along a road that was shaded 

 on either side by fine plane-trees (Platanus orientalis). Even from a distance it 

 became evident that the large leaves were dreadfully disfigured by the whitish mines 

 of some larva, which, for the moment, I thought must be Dipterous. Closer ex- 

 amination shewed that the depredator was Lepidopterous, that, pi'obably, no leaf 

 was left unmined, that sometimes at least twenty mines occurred in a single leaf, 

 and that they were usually on the under-side, but occasionally on the upper-side. 

 Enquiring subsequently at Paris, " What Lithocolletis mines the leaves of plane- 

 tree?", I was told it was X. platani, Stdgr., and that I should have collected the 

 mines wholesale : the latter could have been easily done, but I doubt if any of the 

 larvae would have survived. 



L. platani is a comparatively recently described species. It was first noticed by 

 Staxidinger, in the Hoi'je Soc. Ent. Eossicse, for 1870, p. 277, and the describer states 

 it was found by him at Bellaggio, on the neck of land between Lago di Como and 

 Lago di Lecco (and also by Dr. Kriiper, at Attica, in Greece), that it was in extreme 

 abundance, and that sometimes forty mines (!) were contained in a single leaf, so 

 that my own more humble estimate of " at least twenty " is quite eclipsed. Dr. 

 Staudinger, in a letter to Mr. Stainton, dated August 29th, 18G8, mentions that he 

 had even found one leaf which contained ,^i(_y;/bMr mines (See " Tineina of Southern 

 Eui'ope," p. 140). 



I find that Emilio Turati, in his " Contribuzione alia fauna lepidotterologica 

 lombardo " (Bull. Soc. Ent. Ital., 1879, p. 206), records it from Milan and Brianza, 

 with the remark : " Comunissima sui platani, le cui foglie ne portano parecchie 

 mine I'una accanto aU'altra nella pagina inferiore." 



The following observations occur to me : — Notwithstanding the extreme local 

 abundance of the insect, it is still sufTiciently rare in collections to be coveted as a 

 desideratum. 



The " Oriental-plane" is not supposed to be a native of Europe (properly so- 

 called). It is extensively cultivated as a " shade-tree " in all the warmer parts of 

 Europe. Is its leaf-miner equally widely distributed, but overlooked ? 



If a large number of eggs ("at least twenty") be laid on a single leaf, it by no 

 means necessarily follows that all were laid by the same moth. But some instinct 

 appears to be at work and causes the eggs (in any case) to be placed so far from each 

 other as to enable the larvae to avoid entering upon each other's mines : the leaves 

 are large, so also are the mines. — R. McLachlan, Lewisham : August, 1882. 



The Butterflies op North America ; by W. H. Edwards. Second 

 Series. Part X. Boston : Houghton, Miillin & Co. London : Trubner& Co. 1882. 



