110 [October, 



A notice of CoJeophora paripennella at Kennington in 1851. — Just a third of a 

 century ago, my friend, Mr. William Thomson, who was then living at Brixton 

 brought me some cases, which he had found on an old wooden fence at Kennington 

 and he assured me there were more where these came from. 



The cases he brought were different from any with which I was then acquainted' 

 though I certainly apprehended they must belong to some species of the genu;^ 

 Coleophora — their position on the fence was described to me as different from th(l 

 ordinary pose of the Coleophora cases, with which we were then acquainted. 



I resolved, therefore, to visit the fence myself, and see the cases in situ ; ant 

 having been furnished with a plan of the locality, I had no difficulty in finding th 

 identical palings — open palings, about four or five feet high. I found the casej 

 plentiful enough, lying well-nigh flat to the surface of the paling, some on the outei 

 side, but more on the sides of the openings of the palings. I had been at wow 

 about half-an-hour, when I found that Mr. James Francis Stephens (then liviui 

 in the Foxley Road, Kennington) had come on the same errand as myself, an^ 

 was busily picking these cases off the fence. I believe at the time we had neitht 

 of us the slightest notion what species these cases would produce. 



I am sorry that I have no record of the date of this visit to the palings at Kej 

 nington, but it was in 1851, and I think probably in the month of March. 



On the 31st May the perfect insects began to emerge — they were ColeopJioi 

 paripennella, at that time a great rarity, and in very few collections. Only six caij 

 out on the 31st of May, but early in June they came out more freely, and for sevei 

 days I bred some twenty or thirty a day ; the last came out on the 20th of Jul 

 and I then found that I had set out 224 specimens of this hitherto rare insect. 



How many cases I collected on that visit to the palings at Kennington I cam 

 say, but as I no doubt distributed many cases amongst my friends, it seems proba 

 that my total haul of cases would be little short of 500 ; Mr. Stephens I know ( 

 lected a goodly number, and it is probable that other entomologists had also b( 

 put upon the scent by Mr. Thomson, and had taken their fill. 



Behind the fence grew a somewhat stunted hedge, on which my notes are soV- 

 what at variance, it was, however, either hawthorn or sloe. When the larvae \\ 

 been feeding the previous autumn that hedge must have been a curious sight. 



I believe some years elapsed before we became familiar with the feeding la t 

 of C. paripennella, the large lateral appendages to the case of the feeding Is i 

 giving it a very different appearance to the case of the hibernated larva. 



I was told the other day that the larva of C. paripennella was solitary, yl 

 think had my informant seen that hedge at Kennington in the autumn of 185C.» 

 would scarcely have applied that epithet to the scores of larvae he would have i b 

 there.— H. T. Stainton, Mountsfield, Lewisham, S.E. : September Gth, 1884. 



Note on Aciptilia microdactylus. — It has been stated that the larva of -4. ♦' 

 crodactylus feeds in or on the flowers of Eupatorium cannabinum ; I feel c t^ 

 certain that it feeds in the stem immediately below. In many cases the pi '' 

 attacked can be at once distinguished, from the dwarfing of the central hea *' 

 blossoms, caused by the attack of the larva on the terminal portion of the m 

 having been made when it was tender, so that the side bunches of flowers overjjiik 

 it. In ordinary circumstances the head of blossoms is all on the same plane. ^ ' ' 



