232 [November, 



refer to Dr. Loew's article, " Revision der Familie der Blepharoceriden" 

 (Schlesische Zeitschr. f. Entomol. Neue Folge, vi, 1877), and to my 

 " Bernerkungen," &c., in the Deutsche entomol. Zeitschr., 1878, pp. 

 405—416. Only I beg that, in the latter article, p. 406, line 11 from 

 top, after the word Hinsiclit, the words ausserhalb der Familie der 

 Gyrtiden should be inserted. 



Heidelberg : October, 1880. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE NYMPH OF ARYTA1NA GENISTA?, LAT. 



BY JOHN SCOTT. 



Our knowledge of the earlier stages of the insects comprising the 

 Family Psyttidce has, until within the last few years, been of very\ 

 limited extent, and whether this has arisen from the supposed diffi- 

 culties attendant upon rearing the creatures, or from what other cause 

 or causes I cannot say. My experience in rearing them has been quite 

 a pleasure, and without the long anxious waiting attached to the* 

 rearing of Lepidoptera. The system I adopt is precisely similar to 

 that adopted by me when I used to breed Micro-Lepidoptera, viz. :- 

 a small flower-pot filled with earth, into which is placed a portion of 

 the food-plant, the young are then put upon it, and the whole covered 

 by a glass cylinder fitting into the rim of the flower-pot. Through 

 the cylinder their actions may easily be observed, as also their habits. 

 Some species live in a crypt formed by the deformation of the leaves 

 occasioned by their attacks, and these are generally enveloped in a 

 fine, flossy, cottony substance, whilst others roam about singly ; perhaps 

 the most active of all the young forms I have met with are those of 

 Arytwna genista, Lat., the subject of the present paper, and they are' 

 included in the latter group. 



The perfect insect had long been known in our collections under 

 the name of Psylla spartii, Hartig (Germ. Zeit., iii, 1841), until I, inr 

 my Monograph of the British species of Tsyllidce, published in the< 

 Trans. Ent. Soc. for 1876, changed it to that of Arytcena ulicis, Curt.. 

 B. E., 565, 22a (1835), his name having priority by some years. It' 

 stood thus until 1879, when Dr. Franz Low recognised it as the Psyllcu 

 genista, Latr., Hist. Crust, et Ins., p. 384 (1804), and so he named 

 and described it in the Verh. z.-b. Ges. Wien, p. 596. At the end of 

 the synonymy, he adds " Die Jugendstadien sind noch unbekannt. 

 This expression set me to work to try and discover the earlier stages 

 of this, one of the commonest species we have in England, or, perhaps, 

 I may say, on the Continent. For several days, at the end of August 



