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THK ENT():\H)LOGIST S RKCOKD. 



was of course an arrangement most suitable to those lovely little 

 creatures, the Lithocolletids, for they could lie cosily all the winter, and 

 ^vhen in the spring, they had left their cocoons and expanded their 

 wings, they could fly on to the tree trunks and rest in comfort. The 

 first of these to appear in spring was Litlwrolletis concuniiteUa, Bankes, 

 which I have sometimes found as early as the middle of April. 

 Following hard on this boldly marked species, would come the more 

 evenly coloured L. rori/lifolidla. This latter is rather an omnivorouf^ 

 feeder. It mines in hawthorn, apple, pear, aud I believe in cherry. 

 This year I have bred it from quince, from mines taken last autumn. 



When May set in the apple trunks became quite interesting. 

 Sometimes moths would rest on the stems of the pear trees, but for 

 some reason they greatly preferred the smoother apple bark. Under 

 ordinary conditions the north and east sides of the trunks were the 

 more favoured. Lithocolletids are usually quiet enough to allow one 

 to examine them with a lense and leave them in peace, if not required. 

 The same may be said of that harbinger of Spring, •Sirannneniaminio 

 jiyrella. By the way one has to remember the virtues of the great 

 Dutch naturalist before reconciling such a name with this agreeable 

 little insect. On the other hand, the two Tortrices, which haunted 

 these trees at the same time of year were very wide awake. If the 

 weather was at all warm, they had to be boxed on sight or lost. 1 

 think (Jocvy.r ari/ip-ana was the most active, but I'l/milcs ritecdiella 

 was also very quickly on the wing. There must be some special pene- 

 trating rays or refractions of light which jiroceed from the human eye, 

 for I have often noticed that one may V)e aware of a moth at rest on 

 the bark of a tree, where it will remain still till one directs the sight 

 on it to determine the species, it then becomes restless, and if one of 

 the active species it will sometimes tly oft' at once. The destructive 

 (.'arpocapsa potnnncUa is usually quickly out of the way, as if it knew 

 it was not welcome. About the middle of 'S[\\ ( >, ulr f/nttra would 

 appear, but never in any numbers. Soon after this the glorious burst 

 of spring would be over, and even the larvae of Kiipithecia irrtanynlata. 

 which bad been feeding in the apple blossoms, would all be spun up. 

 There would still be a few worn specimens of Lithocolletids on the 

 trunks, and occasionally, half hidden in a cranny of the bark, 

 a specimen of the ubiquitous, white-headed I'^ndrosi.s lactedla. 

 During this lull the apple trunks were hardly worth seai'ch- 

 ing. One might intercept a larva of Bccnrraria nanella on its 

 way down the trunk to find a convenient niche in which to spin its 

 cocoon. Towards midsuujmer An/i/n'itt/iitt connila with its head 

 against the bark and its tail in air, would gladden the eye, and one 

 was tempted to awaken it, in order to witness how carefully it laid its 

 head again on the bark after balancing its body on its legs like a .see- 

 saw. As the most beautiful month of the year gave way to July, 

 these tree trunks became again vei-y attractive to the Tineist. Hryo- 

 ' tvopha (Innx'stica, bred on the neighbouring mossy walls, and wandering 

 thence in search of honied blossoms, would take up a day's lodging on 

 the bark, and Htrmrdiia naiuila, escapiiig from its cocoon, would 

 rest there after its strenuous efforts to free itself from its pupal 

 shell. The Gelechias, to which tribe these two last mentioned 

 lielong, 1 look on as the most acute of the Tineids. ilelechia 

 ihoinbelUi is certainly not the least gifted in cleverness. I have, 



