13-A i-'"»«' 



tenebricosus, Herbst, but is much smaller and less elongate, and has 

 the thorax and elytra more roughly sculptured, the elytra coarsely 

 punctate-striate. From O. atroapterus, De Gear, which is about the 

 same size and shape, it may be known by the rougher sculpture and 

 the undilated apices of the anterior tibiae ; and fi"om O. maurus, GrylL, 

 by the much longer limbs and the more attenuate elytra. 



Liosoma pyrenceum, Bris. {^= troqlodi/tes, ^ye) , und Cathormiocerus 

 socius, Boh., possess a somewhat similar extended geographical distri- 

 bution ; both these insects, however, are extremely local in Britain. 



I am indebted to M. Louis Bedel, of Paris, for corroborating the 

 determination of this interestiug addition to the British list. 



Horeell, Woking : 



May \bih, 1895. 



FOOD-PLANTS OF ELACHISTA CERUSELLA. 

 BY C. G. BARRETT, F.E.S. 



In 1854 Mr. Stainton wrote (Insecta Britannica, Lep. Tin. p. 

 259) " the larva feeds in the upper part of the leaves of the common 

 reed (Arundo phraqmites) at the beginning of August ; the spring 

 brood of the larva has not yet been observed." In the Nat. Hist. 

 Tineina, vol. iii, p. 94, he says, " Those who walk along the bank of a 

 stream where the common reed, Arundo phragmites, is growing, can 

 hardly fail to notice in April or the beginning of August some con- 

 spicuous large white blotches on the upper-side of the broad leaves of 

 the reed ; these blotches are the mines of the larva of Elachista ceru- 

 sella." And again, "there are two broods in a year, the larvae feeding 

 in April and again at the end of July and beginning of August." 



Within the last few days my friend Mr. W. C. Boyd has called 

 my attention to the somewhat obvious and well known fact that the 

 leaves of the common reed (Arundo) die down in the winter and have 

 not grown up in April, from which circumstance it seems probable 

 that the larvae cannot feed in them at that time. But he has brought 

 me the conspicuous mines in the broad leaves of Phalaris arundinacea 

 (reed grass or reed canary grass) in which the larvae of this species 

 were feeding, and from which they emerged a week ago, pupated, 

 and have to-day (May 14th) commenced to emerge as moths. Mr. 

 Boyd tells me that in the place from which these were obtained there 

 is no Arundo, nor any within three quarters of a mile, and that both 

 generations of the larva must, in this place, surely feed on the 



