NEW BRITISH TINEINA. 163 



Murinipen7iella. The case is, however, much shorter than 

 that of 3IuriiiipenneUa. 



The larv^, as ah'eady mentioned, were received towards 

 the end of May, and the perfect insects began to appear on 

 the 6th of Julj, and continued to emerge for more than a 

 fortnight. 



During the past season I have had the pleasure of becom- 

 ing personally acquainted with the larva of Eidophasia 

 Mcssingiella, having received several from Mr. Threlfall, 

 of Preston, the first week in May, feeding on Cardamine 

 amara. They were full fed about the 18th of May, and spun 

 open network cocoons similar to those of the genus Plutella. 

 As the larva simply eats the edges of the leaves, and does 

 not in any way discolour or distort the plant, and as its green 

 colouring almost exactly accords with that of the leaves on 

 which it feeds, it is not an easy larva to find, and a suc- 

 cessful searcher must be both sharp-sighted and possessed 

 of considerable perseverance. Not having any Cardamine 

 amara growing near me, I offered these larvae C pratensis^ 

 which they ate readily. 



Mr. Hodgkinson has had the good fortune to breed Hey- 

 denia {Asychna) profiigella from the seed-heads of gentian 

 collected in September; previously it had only been bred 

 from larva? feeding on the seeds of various Umbelliferse (see 

 ajite, p. 24). 



m2 



