96 [April, 



had been closed for years. The building spanned an artificial moat which had run 

 dry, and in which I found (then or at some other time) nests of the water wagtail. 

 The place was orergrown with scattered trees and shrubs that had run wild. About 

 150 moths emerged, and I well remember that the males, all, or nearly all, emerged 

 before the females. The nest required considerable force to detach it from the 

 planks. It was, I think, larger than the one referred to by Mr. Barrett (Ent. Mo. 

 Mag., March, 1895, p. 72), and was of very irregular shape; but this can perhaps 

 be verified, as I gave the nest to the British Museum, where it was exhibited in a 

 table-case, and I saw it there many years afterwards. — F. Meerifield, 24, Vernon 

 Terrace, Brighton : March, 1895. 



The food of the larva of Aphomia sociella. — I have had the sponge-like masses 

 of empty cocoons of this species brought me several times, and once had a full one, 

 from which I bred many moths ; I have never been able to find in these any debris 

 of the food, whatever it was, and so am perhaps hardly entitled to criticize Mr. 

 Blackburne-Maze's suggestion that they feed in wasps' nests. I have tliree times, 

 however, seen the place whence the cocoons were taken — twice from under a heap 

 of stones that was much more suitable for a nest of bees than wasps, and once from 

 amongst wood that would have suited either ; the places had been much disturbed 

 in each case, so that I attached no importance to finding no suggestive material 

 (moss, &c.). The chief reason, however, that makes me adhere to the accepted 

 opinion that the food is humble bees' nests is, that the debris oi these contains much 

 waste bee-bread and thick silken cocoons that would form suitable pabulum for the 

 moth, whilst the waste material of a wasp's nest contains very little silk, much wasp 

 larval_excreta, and a trifling weight of wood paper, practically little or no nutritive 

 material. The Dipterous larvae tliat inhabit wasps' nests appear to live on damp 

 excrementitious material that seem quite unsuitable for a Lepidopteron. — T. A. 

 Chapman, Firbank, Hereford : March oth, 1895. 



Notes on Tinea pallescentella. — Early in October, 1888, odd specimens of Tinea 

 pallescentella flew into my place of business at Birmingham, and wishing to learn 

 something about its habits, I ti-aced it to its home, the cellar of a boot warehouse. 

 On descending the cellar with a light, the moths were seen on the walls in large 

 numbers, scuttling in all directions into nooks and crannies, but seldom attempting 

 flight. They varied exceedingly in size, some of the females being very large, 

 measuring nearly an inch across the wings. Their colour varied from unicolorous pale 

 grey to dark grey, with dark brown markings, and two striking pale yellow forms 

 were taken. 



In the hope of working out its life-history, many excursions were made during 

 the next few months into the cellar, which contained slack, straw, paper, and plenty 

 of dust and dirt, the premises being very old. The back part of the cellar, railed 

 off, containing butts of leather, showed no trace of moths. 



Close searching revealed cocoons in the niches of the walls, made of silk, covered 

 with particles of coal dust, whiting or brick dust, harmonizing so well with the 

 surroundings that full ones were very difficult to find, although empty cases sticking 

 out of the cocoons were very conspicuous, sometimes half a dozen together in a bunch. 



The pupa is about three-eighths of an inch long, pale shining ochreous, the 



