114 [October, 



tenanted by reddish larvae, which were suspected to be Nepticula alnetella. In the 

 latter part of June these emerged, N. glidinoscE. — I. H. Threlfall, Preston : 

 September \Mh, 1882. 



Habits and description of the larva of Chelaria conscrlpteUa. — Whilst ex- 

 amining a birch tree in the latter part of last June for larvre, which seem, upon the 

 whole, to have been extremely scarce this year, my wife observed that the young 

 leaves on one ot the shoots were rolled up and partially eaten ; and in the youngest 

 leaf that was so attacked we found a small pinkish-brown larva, with a black head 

 and second segment. On further examination, we detected several other shoots eaten 

 in the same manner, the larvae from which have produced Chelaria conscriptella. 



The larva rolls up a leaf longitudinally and eats about half of it, sometimes 

 also eating a little fi'om a neighbouring leaf. It then proceeds to the nest leaf nearer 

 to the tip of the shoot, as if the leaf it had left had become too old and hard for its 

 jaws, and treats it in the same manner. In some cases I have found it rolled up in 

 one of the very small leaves only about a quarter developed, close to the very tip of 

 the shoot. When full fed it spins a slight cocoon, and turns to a pupa of a light 

 brown colour, and thickly covered with short hairs like the pile of velvet, excejDt 

 between the segments. The moths began to emerge- on the 29th of July. I have 

 also bred this species from bramble. 



I append a description of the larva : 



Length, 4^ lines. Head black, rough like morocco leather, and shining ; 2nd 

 segment with a black plate above like the head, with slight indications of a pale 

 dorsal line, and a small triangular black plate on each side. The general colour of 

 the body is a brownish-pink, of which the shade varies considerably in different in- 

 dividuals. The pink predominates in the central portions of each segment on the 

 back and upper parts of the sides ; the portions between the segments and the under 

 parts of the body have a light brownish tinge, with a very faint trace of the pink 

 colour. The usual spots are small and black, and generally very inconspicuous. The 

 hairs emitted by them have mostly a brownish tinge, those on the back being darker, 

 sometimes quite black, and two at the anus, as well as a few on the sides of the front 

 segments, are blackish with light-coloured rings. The legs are almost black, but the 

 light ground-colour shows rather conspicuously between their segments ; the elaspers 

 are of the light brown ground-colour, tinged with pink on the outsides, the rings of 

 hooks at the feet being darker brown ; the spiracles are inconspicuously edged with 

 black. — Nelson M. Richardson, Llangennech Park, E. S. O., Carmarthenshire : 

 August imh, 1882. 



[The notice of the habits of this larva given above is extremely interesting. 

 Madame Lienig's description (Isis, 1846, p. 292) says nothing of the habits ; she 

 gives the same food-plant, birch, but she describes the young larva as white, with 

 hardly a tinge of greenish, and the more adult larva as dull whitish. It is not till 

 some time before pupation that she says it is reddish-brown, with white incisions of 

 the segments. 



Since Madame Lienig's time no one seems to have met witli the larva, but 

 Tarious food-plants have been assigned to it, from the imago frequenting certain 



