18S4.] 187 



the ground,or on the trunk, they must, in either case, before spinning their final cocoons, 

 have travelled a considerable distance, at a time when, considering their long winter 

 sleep and fast, they might well be expected to be somewhat enfeebled. 



Mons. Goureau records the finding of cocoons in the autumn on the \ejs,just 

 oidside the hole from which the larva had emerged. In this place I have never found 

 them, but may it not well be the case, that the larvae do so spin, close to the point 

 where the key rests on the petiole, or even on the petiole itself ? These do not 

 generally fall with the keys, but remain on the tree till the appearance of new leaves 

 in spring : in many cases also the keys themselves do not fall. Thus it would be only 

 a short ramble for the resuscitated larvse on to the young keys and leaves. One thing 

 at all events is certain that the larvae which had spun these fresh cocoons in the last 

 week of May, had not fed up in this year's keys, which were even then in some cases 

 not half their full size, while many still bore the parts of the flower. The images 

 bred were all true sericopeza, in nowise differing either in size or colouring from 

 the later brood. 



In the month of July, while examining the leaves of Salix alha, I noticed at 

 the extreme tip of a leaf, a brown Nepticula cocoon, and lower down, in the same 

 leaf, the empty mine. On further search I discovered 20 or 30 such cocoons, all but 

 one in the same place, at the tip of the leaf, not always the same leaf as that in which, 

 the larva had fed up, but occasionally in an adjacent one. The sole exception had 

 spun up on a midrib, close to the leaf-stalk. Among the images which emerged and 

 which appear to be true salicis, there was one very beautiful variety with the fore 

 wing white from the base to the external margin of the pale fascia. 



While on this subject of the NepticuJcB, I may call attention to two facts in 

 connection with the autumn brood of the present year : — first, the excessive mortality 

 among nearly all the species : secondly, the unusual scarcity of many larvae gene- 

 rally plentiful, and the unusual abundance of others. 



Thus atricapiteUa and ruficapiteUa of the oak-feeders, viscerella and margini- 

 colella of the elm-feeders, and gratiosella and ignobilella of the hawthorn, the mines 

 of which are all generally more or less common, have this autumn been quite scarce. 

 On the other hand, lasiguttella and suhbimaciilella have occurred in far greater 

 numbers than I have ever met with them before, the latter, always abundant, being 

 this year in thousands. The other commoner species, such as oxyacanthella, atricollis, 

 anomalella, trimaculella, catharticella, with those of the birch and alder, have 

 appeared pretty much as usual. But nearly all alike have been extraordinarily subject 

 to disease at every period of their larval life. This disease would seem to commence 

 with a discolouration of the dorsal vessel alone, the larva ceases to feed, and dies in 

 situ, after which the whole body becomes dark. After examining a large number I 

 am satisfied that this mortality was not attributable to the attacks of ichneumons ; 

 possibly owing to the premature wet and cold weather of October the larvae tried to 

 feed up too fast and paid the penalty. Tlie only species which seems to have been 

 comparatively exempt from this disease was subbimaculeUa, which, being always a late 

 feeder, would naturally not bo so much affected by the bad weather. 



A remark with regard to Nep. quinqitella may not be uninteresting. Mr. 

 Stainton in the Manual says of this species, "used to be common at West Wickham." 

 It does not appear to have been observed again in any quantities until Mr. Meyrick 



