1886.] 261 



sienna-brown, almost black indeed ; tubercles olive-brown, the anal plate with a 

 slightly greener tinge. A very faint, narrow, brown, pulsating vessel forms the 

 dorsal line, but there are no perceptible sub-dorsal or spiracular lines. 



Ventral surface and prolegs the same colour as the ground of the dorsal area, 

 and placed transversely on segments 5 and 6 are three olive tubercles ; legs black, 

 ringed with olive. 



Huddersfield : February 15fh, 1886. 



Abundance of Sphinx convolvuli at Scilly last August. — I was there at Christ- 

 mas, and was shown two specimens of S. convolvuli at Tresco Abbey, and was 

 informed that there had often been five or six at a time buzzing in the conservatory. 

 A large larva had been brought in from the island of Bryher, which was supposed 

 to be of this species, and there were said to be many more. But as they were not 

 seen by any entomologist, this must remain uncertain. — F. Jenkinson, Trinity 

 College, Cambridge : March, 1886. 



Occurrence in Herefordshire of Lithocolletis distentella, a species new to 

 Britain. — Having spent some time in the autumn of 188 i in seeing how far it 

 might be possible to separate the mines of the different common Lithocolletis of the 

 oak from one another, I found that at the end of the season I had among various 

 assortments a small collection of five or six specimens, from which there issued in 

 the following summer, two moths, which Mr. Warren kindly identified as the above 

 species. He tells me that in Staudinger's Catalogue the localities given are France, 

 Switzerland, and Germany, and the food-plants Quercus Robur and pubescens : 

 further, that it is figured in Herrich-Schaffer, 756, and that this author records that 

 it was bred at Zurich by Professor Frey. As a short description will, probably, not 

 be out of place, I append one. 



Pale saffron, with a silvery-white unmargined basal streak, and four costal and 

 two dorsal ones internally dark-margined ; the first costal streak is continued along 

 the extreme edge of the costa towards the base, and a curved dark line runs through 

 the apical fringe. It is a large, well-marked insect, and with the dark hook in the 

 fringe not likely to be mistaken for any of our other species. 



Now for a word on the mine, to many, probably, the most interesting part of 

 the subject, more especially as I hope to be able to show that it can be separated 

 ■without difficulty from most if not all of our other numerous oak-feeders. The 

 ,mine is large, sometimes occupying the middle of the leaf between two of the main 

 ribs, and then much resembling the mine of roboris, at others, and this is the more 

 common form, crossing the I'ibs and lying along the edge of the leaf; in both forms 

 arching the leaf considerably. Such are its general features ; the more special ones 

 by which it is distinguished fi'om its allies are the absence of a cocoon ; the pupa 

 being simply suspended by a few cross threads in the centre of the mine, whereas, in 

 all others I am acquainted with, viz., roboris, Cramerella, lautella, quercifoliella, and 

 messaniella, a cocoon of some kind is constructed ; and in the second place, the pre- 



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