INVESTIGATIONS ON SCIAPHILA WAHLBOMIANA, ETC. 59 



oak-leaves, where it had evidently hybernated; the ordinary 

 period for the flight of this species is June and July (Stett. 

 Ent. Ztg., 1849, p. 247). 



As soon as the larva quits the egg it bores beneath the 

 upper skin of a tender leaf, and forms, by raising and folding 

 longitudinally the loosened upper skin, which now appears 

 white, a narrow and straight mine about two lines long, of 

 which both the openings are protected by some delicate white 

 silk. The chlorophyll, which the larva has to remove in 

 order to form the mine, is its first food; the excrement is 

 ejected at both ends of the mine. These mined abodes, which 

 seem to be very characteristic of the genus Sciaphila, may 

 easily be mistaken by the inexperienced for the mines of 

 small larva3 of the Tineina, an error into which I used at 

 one time to fall myself. The larva? inhabiting these mines 

 may be either pale or dark greenish-grey, with black head 

 and thoracic shield, and a roundish black anal plate. After- 

 wards the larva quits the mine and spins up amongst the 

 leaves of its food-plant, forming an abode which is apt to 

 vary much in shape, according to the form of the leaves of 

 the plant, but which generally forms a sort of capsule, within 

 which the larva lives. Amongst the most remarkable abodes, 

 and at the same time very characteristic of SciapJiila, are 

 those which the larva? construct on plants, with large, entire- 

 margined leaves, e. g., Bupleiirum falcatum, Cenfaurea, 

 &c. In these cases, they curve a leaf along the midrib up- 

 wards, and fasten the edges together with silk, so as to form 

 a prolonged capsule or cone. 



The larva then proceeds to gnaw away the chlorophyll 

 from the inner wall of this cone, and, at first, beneath the tip 

 it gnaws a rather deep furrow all round the abode, in conse- 

 quence of which, the end of the cone first becomes withered, 

 but remains hanging to the larger basal portion which con- 



