1S92.J 169 



OUR RUSH-FEEDINa COLEOPROR^. 

 BY JOHN H. WOOD, M.B. 



(Concluded from page 122). 



C. MUEINIPENNELLA. 



Exp. al., 5^—6 lin. Fore-wings grey, streaked with fine white lines, that run 

 the whole length of the wing ; costal margin edged by one of these lines. Fringe 

 at apex of costa grey, tipped with white along the free edge. Antennas white, an- 

 nulated with dark gir>ey quite up to the tips. 



It is a rather large insect. The antennas have a dark appearance 

 from the breadth of the annulations, which go completely round and 

 not only half way as in alticolella. The only other of the group I am 

 acquainted with that has very similar antennse is adjunct ella ; but from 

 this it may readily be distinguished by the white lines in the wings. 

 From alticolella, whose wings are also streaked but not so distinctly, 

 it may be known by its larger size and the absence of any shade of 

 yellow, as well as by the difference of the antennas. It is, perhaps, 

 the earliest of all upon the wing, but much depends upon the site. 

 This year I found it swarming in a sunny field under the Malverns as 

 early as May 12th, but in my own locality at home, a high spot with a 

 north aspect, I did not meet with it until the 30th, when it was in 

 good order, and certainly had not been out many days, for I had been 

 watching for it pretty assiduously ; whilst, at Haugh Wood, where 

 the insect is scarce and evidently out of its element inhabiting a wood, 

 1 saw it ovipositing on Luzula multiilora on June 3rd, 



Larva, pale reddish-brown, or flesh-coloured, almost white on the thoracic 

 segments. Head blackish-brown. Plates all black. The full number of dorsal sub- 

 plates on 3rd present, but only the anterior pair on 4th. Thus, compared with 

 ulticolella, the general colour is paler, but the plates darker. It feeds on Luzula 

 campestris and multijiora. The cases may be found in July, and continue on the 

 rushes till about the end of September. 



I allowed the opportunity to p«.ss without ascertaining the precise age of the 

 iarva when it begins its case-life, but as the cases on their first appearance are about 

 the size of those of glitucicolella, and as the latter is in its antipenultimate skin 

 %vhen it commences building, it may be concluded that murinipennella is also of the 

 same age at this turning jx)iut in its existence. Hence, it takes to a case one moult 

 efirlier than alficolella. The case is at first white, semitransparent, and dusted, as 

 seems to be the rule with all of them, with minute particles from the interior of the 

 capsule. As it gets bigger, it becomes opaque and ochreous, except along a narrow 

 line on the under-side that remains of the original white colour, and the meaning 

 of which I shall explain when treating of glaucicolella. In general appearance the 

 full-sized case is very like the full-grown case of ccespititiella, only it is rather longer 

 and narrower ; hence it has a more slender look, and its colour besides is brownish- 

 ochreous, not white or whitish-ochreous, as in ccespititiella. 



