1SS3.] 165 



Descrijjtion of tJie larva of Semioscojjis avellanella. — This larva appears to be 

 unknown, or, at any rate, no notice of it occurs in entomological works. I have 

 found it now for the last three years on lime bushes {Tllia parv folia) in woods, in 

 August and September, and this year in July as well. At first it rolls-over the edge 

 of the leaf, forming a narrow cylindrical chamber open at both ends, from which it 

 protrudes and eats the adjoining parts, consuming the whole thickness of the leaf — 

 a somewhat remarkable circumstance considering how small and tender the larva at 

 this time is. Afterwards its habit changes, and it lives for the rest of its life under 

 a web, on the under-surface of a leaf, to which it communicates a partial curve. 

 Like most larvae with such a habit, it is always on the alert, and very quick in its 

 motions, so that vmless care is taken in plucking the leaf out it tumbles and saves 

 itself in the herbage below. 



It is smooth, long, and slender, cylindrical, but tapering a little behind ; active, 

 with a quick, jerky walk. Head full and round, narrower than the second segment, 

 green. Thoracic plate green. Divisions marked by a yellow skin-fold. Colour 

 whitish- green, passing into bluish-green on the belly ; when full-fed, turns to a 

 uniform green. Dorsal vessel dark green and distinct, but of variable intensity, 

 being in some specimens almost absent on the middle segments. There is no indi- 

 cation of clubbing in the third pair of legs. It spins a tough cocoon underground. 

 The pupa is stout, red with green wing-cases, but changes, before winter sets in, to 

 brown, in consequence of the early development of the perfect insect, after the man- 

 ner of the genus TcBniocampa. The empty case remains within the cocoon after the 

 emergence of the moth. — Jonx H. Wood, Tarrington, Ledbury: Nov. 2nd, 1883. 



Occurrence of Coleopliora vibicigerella, Z. {a species veiu to Britain) in Essex. — 

 Mr. William Machin has just sent me a specimen of this conspicuous, brightly- 

 marked insect for determination. It was taken near Fobbing, in Essex, at no great 

 distance from the salt-marslies, at the end of June last. It was obtained, as Mr, 

 Machin writes, " from a hedge in the garden of a friend, about a yard from a large 

 plant of Artemisia vulgaris. At the time of captm-e, I was, of course, unacquainted 

 with the species and its food-plant. But on ascertaining from Mr. Warren that the 

 insect was probably C. vibicigerella, of which the larva fed on Artemisia campestris, 

 I returned to the spot with the intention of searching the plant of Artemisia vul- 

 garis ; arriving at my friend's house I had the mortification of learning that he had 

 cut down the plant about a month previously. I have well searched the hedges and 

 fields in the neighbourhood, when I found plenty of ^. vulgaris, but no trace of the 

 larvse of xnhicigerella. I met with no plants of Artemisia campestris." I may men- 

 tion that A. campestris is a local plant, occurring, however, in great plenty in some 

 parts of Suffolk and Norfolk. In H. C. Watson's New Botanists' G-uide (1835), we 

 read, under Suffolk, p. 118 : " about Barton and Eldeu plentifully ; and on Ickling- 

 ham Heath, near Bury. Eng. Fl. At a place called Elden, two miles beyond 

 Newmarket, towards Lynn, on the banks of corn-fields, and by the way sides 

 abundantly, for a mile in length and breadth ; also a mile from Barton Mills, on the 

 way to Lynn, and among the furze-bushes under the hill. B. G." And under 

 Norfolk, p. 132 : "about a mile from Thetford, on the road to Norwich, in great 

 abundance. B. G." 



