120 LMay. 



The larva is to be known from any of the others described in this paper by its 

 pallor. It is semi-transparent, and of a dirty whitish colour. Head brown, with 

 mouth and eye spots black. Dorsal plate on 2nd brown, with a blackish border 

 behind. The four sub-plates on the back of 3rd brown, with greyish centres. The 

 inner pair of sub-plates on 4th absent; the outer pair brown, sometimes grey. 

 Plates in the spiracular region of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th greyish-black. Anal plate 

 greyish-black. Legs pale grey or brown. 



Like its allies, the larva lives for some time inside the seed-capsules, before it 

 thinks of making a case. This case is composed of two distinct parts : an outer 

 part, consisting of the seed-envelopes of the rush ; and an inner part of woven silk, 

 which in the full-sized case projects considerably beyond the outer one. It differs 

 in no respect, except its gi'eater size, from the case of alticolella ; and as it is in 

 connection with the latter insect that I have more particularly studied it, I will 

 reserve the few observations I may have to make until I come to that species. All, 

 therefore, I need now say with regard to syJvaticella is, that the cases make their 

 appearance late in the summer, and look at first like detached fruitlets of the rush ; 

 that by the end of autumn they are about as large as full sized ones of alticolella ; 

 the larvae then hide away till the following spring, when they may be found early 

 in May upon the new panicles, eating out the hearts of the flowers, a month later 

 they have completed the dimensions of their cases ; some time in July or August 

 they once more retire to pass a second winter in some secure spot ; in the spring 

 they pupate, and last of all the perfect insects make their appearance towards the 

 end of May. Thus two complete years are spent from one egg-laying to the next 

 in descent. 



C. ALTICOLELLA. 



Exp. al., 4j — hi lin. Fore-wings ochreous-yellow, streaked with fine white lines, 

 that run the whole length of the wing ; costal margin edged by one of these lines ; 

 costal fringe at the apex ochreous-yellow, tipped along the free border with white. 

 AntennaB rather thick, annulated on the inner face nearly to the tip with pale fuscous, 

 entirely white on the outer face. It is the smallest and yellowest of the group, and 

 if to this be added the streaked condition of the wings, its identification can scarcely 

 be missed. 



Larva, yellowish -red, or mahogany coloured, rather paler on segments 2nd and 

 3rd. Head brown, with black mouth and eye spots. Colour of the several dorsal 

 plates of the thorax rather variable, ranging from dark grey to blackish ; sometimes 

 brown, and then the plate on the 2nd has a blackish border behind, and those on 

 the 3rd have grey centres. The anterior sub-plates on the 4th small and indistinct, 

 the posterior pair quite absent. Spiracular plates on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th dark grey 

 or blackish. Anal plate black. Legs grey. 



It feeds on Juncus lamprocnvpus and acutijlorus, and had I been 

 writing six months ago, I should have said that it confined itself ex- 

 clusively to these rushes. My acquaintance with it began in 1884, 

 when I found it on lamprocarpus ; the next year I took it on acuti- 

 florus ; and since then I have frequently collected or observed it upon 

 the first-named. This is a rush that with me generally intergrows 



