NEW WORKS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 147 



The following extracts from the body of the work will 

 show the mode in which the subject is treated. 



" No. I.-NEPTICULA AURELLA. 

 "Plate I. Fig. 1. 

 " How noticeable.— Larva. 

 " Few persons can have failed to observe, especially at the com- 

 mencement of spring, that the leaves of the common bramble are 

 frequently marked with small serpentine whitish blotches — some- 

 times several in one leaf. These blotches are the mines of the 

 larvae of N. aurella. "When they are very conspicuous, that is of 

 itself an indication that their tenants have deserted them ; but, if 

 we search more closely, we shall probably find among many mines 

 some which are only slightly discoloured, and in these the larvae 

 still feeding. 



" How noticeable.— Imago. 

 " In windy yet sunny weather, in the months of May and August, 

 this little moth may sometimes be observed on palings and trunks of 

 trees. 



"Mode of Life. 



"The egg is deposited on the under surface (rarely on the upper 

 surface) of the bramble leaf; immediately it is hatched, the larva 

 bores into the leaf and commences feeding between the skins on 

 the upper layer of parenchyma, and proceeds in an irregular, not 

 contorted, wavy path of moderate width. The mined place, which 

 is only visible on the upper surface of the leaf, is at first green- 

 ish grey, gradually changing to greenish white, and along the 

 centre of it is a string of blackish excrement. When the larva is 

 full fed, it makes a fissure in the upper side of the leaf and creeps 

 out, the place it had just occupied being distinguished by the ab- 

 sence of any grains of excrement. Arrived at the outside of the 

 leaf, the larva hastens to seek a secure place (probably on the 

 ground amongst leaves), and there spins a rather flat cocoon, of an 

 irregular shape with scalloped edges, and of a colour varying from 

 pale dirty-green to pale brown ; in this it changes to a pupa, and 

 at the expiration of three weeks, or longer if the weather be cold, 

 the pupa protrudes its head through one end of the cocoon, and its 

 skin cracking, the imago is liberated. There are several broods in 

 the year, and the brambles being evergreen, the larva may be found 

 in mild seasons throughout the winter. April, July and October 

 may be considered as the principal months in which the larva feeds, 

 and its imago is plentiful in May and June, and not uncommon in 

 August." 



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