130 [June, 



viburnana. Bryotropha mundella, B. umbrosella, (Ecoconia quadri- 

 puncfella (1), and Galanthia variella were numbered among the 

 victims, and no end of time and trouble was devoted to working 

 for young larvae of Q. senescens and one or two of its congeners, 

 and studying their habits and variation, but they proved as slippery 

 customers as ever to secure, and no less difBcult to rear ! Coleo- 

 phora conyzce and C. Fahriciella, which is especially partial to 

 white clover {Trifolium repens), were present, whilst from cases on 

 heads of purple clover (T. pratense) gathered in 1893 C. deauratella, 

 which seems difficult to rear and apt to come out dwarfed, was bred 

 very sparingly : G. ochreella was noticed in the larval state in one 

 spot, C. ohtusella was bred from old seedheads of Juncus maritimus 

 gathered in May, and two or three examples of Elacliista atricomella, 

 and Lithocolletis ulicicolella fell to the net. My attempts to find Lita 

 salicornicd in our Purbeck saltmarshes were rewarded by the capture of 

 two imagines, and numbers of the large form (from Plantago maritima) 

 of L.plantaffinella, though considerably the worse for wear,but repeated 

 endeavours to obtain Acrolepia marcidella in any stage, in the spot 

 where three individuals have been brought to bag, were, as of old, 

 altogether in vain. Even in the very worst seasons some few species 

 are always sure to appear in unwonted numbers, and such was the 

 case, for here and there, in the spring, the gorse-bushes were white-sNiih 

 the larval webs of Galanthia grandipennis, and on one grand night in 

 the beginning of July Xystophora lutulentella ( ,^ ) fairly swarmed, 

 though, as usual, an enormous percentage was sadly worn. In the 

 autumn it was a treat to again, after an interval of several years, come 

 across the larva of Epermenia daucella in moderate quantity in one 

 spot, and to find that Trifurcula palUdella (J') was still procurable 

 in its old haunts : the females of both this and X. lutulentella appear 

 to be extremely rare, and hitherto I have in vain watched those that 

 have been met with in the hope of seeing them oviposit, and have re- 

 peatedly failed to discover the larva of either species. Cases of Coleo- 

 phora adjunctella were unaccountably scarce, and during the last two 

 seasons Gosmopteryx Schmidiella has, as far as my experience has gone, 

 been able to prove an alihi, not a single larva or even an empty mine 

 having rewarded my search, whilst, to the best of my belief, the imago 

 has never yet been captured in Britain. Larvae of Nepticula acetoscd, 

 which had baffled all our efforts to turn it up in Purbeck until the Rev. 

 C. E.Digby chanced upon it when staying with me in August, 1892, were 

 not uncommon in two small spots, but the insect is surprisingly local. 

 It appears to have a succession of broods, and to be always impatient 



