1383.] . 17 



paler, having the bristles at the apex of the segments less conspicuous. I should 

 be only too pleased to add a new ant to our list, i. e., if indigenous and not intro- 

 duced directly by unnatural means, but I really think a form in the midst of the 

 confusion of gagaies, cunundaria, fusca, &c., should not be singled out for that pur- 

 pose. — Edward Saundeks, Holmesdale, Upper Tooting : ^th May, 1883. 



On the hahits of the larva of Eupoecifla rupicola. — I have found these larvse 

 commonly, wherever Eupatorium cannahinum grows, not, however, in the standing 

 stems of last year's plants, but in old broken and rotten bits, lying prostrate on the 

 ground and covered over with moss and rubbish. 



If the old stems happen to have been broken, or mown off, within three or four 

 inches of the ground, there is pretty certain to be a larva spun up in a long cocoon, 

 fastened to the outer wall of the stem, much in the same way as that of E. iidana 

 is, or else among the half-eaten pith. 



Whether the larva at first feeds in the flowers and descends to make up in the 

 rubbish 1 cannot say, but certainly the pith of the old stems is eaten. Sometimes 

 two or three larvae may be found, one behind the other, in a very narrow stalk just 

 large enough to hold them. These larvae are bright yellowish-pink on the back, 

 paler beneath. Very sluggish, and if disturbed, not wandering away as the larva of 

 udana does, but contentedly spinning themselves up again in the old spot. Unfor- 

 tunately they are terribly subject to ichneumons, which are already beginning to 

 appear. I have not found a single larva in a standing stem of last season. — W. 

 Waeeen, Merton'Cottage, Cambridge : April 20th, 1883. 



On the hibernation as full-fed laruce of some species of Nepticula. — -Dr. Wocke 

 has remarked in the Stettin, ent. Zeit., 1871, p. 428, that the larvte of Nepticula 

 sericopeza may be found spinning their cocoons on maple-trunks in spring, and it 

 seems probable that others may have the same habit, ignorance of which is possibly 

 the cause of failure or difficulty in breeding these species. Last autumn I placed a 

 few pear-leaves, with larvte of N. minusculella in their mines, within a glass vessel 

 half-full of earth and rubbish. The top was covered over with a piece of white 

 muslin. I took particular care of these insects, because, though I had bred them 

 easily from the summer brood, I had always failed with the winter one. 



Well, I examined the vessel carefully last autumn, and also at times during the 

 winter, without seeing any ti-ace of cocoon or larva in the earth through the glass. 

 Last week, on putting the vessel along with others containing Nepticulce in the 

 recess of a window, exposed to the sunshine, I was startled to find a fresh yellow 

 cocoon attached to the muslin at the top of the glass. Now, as I have had the 

 covering off many times during the winter, and examined it each time, the cocoon 

 must have certainly been newly spun, so that I cannot help thinking that the larva 

 of mimisculella hibernates in the ground and spins up only in spring. 



In confirmation of this supposition I may mention that, three years ago, I had 

 collected a, large number of larvae of Nepticula atricollis, some of which were kept 

 in an ordinary flower-pot half-full of earth, and others in a tin without earth. In 

 the summer following, I bred large numbers of the imago from the flower-pot, but 

 failed to find within the earth the slightest trace of a cocoon ; while from tlie tin I 



B 



