OBSERVATIONS ON TINEINA. 171 



■was checked and the stalks of the keys had withered, and 

 hence the keys fell to the ground. 



The keys which are tenanted by these larvae become 

 blackish at the place where the seeds are, and if a small hole 

 be visible there the larva has already made its escape. 



On one of the keys collected, and of which the seeds had 

 been eaten, Colonel Gom-eau detected a small flat cocoon, 

 nearly circular, of yellowish-white silk, and having placed 

 several keys, which were apparently occupied by larvae, in a 

 glass box, he had the pleasure of seeing in a short time that 

 four or five larvae had come out of the keys and had spun 

 their flat, white, or whitish-rosy cocoons ; the cocoon in each 

 case being attached to the key itself. 



The first of the moths made its appearance on the 28th 

 June, and a second appeared on the 1st of July. 



In the event of this being a new species. Colonel Goureau 

 had proposed for it the name of Nepticula Acerella. 



On the 28th of June, 1863, I captured at Lewisham on a 

 honeysuckle leaf a fine specimen of Nepticula Sericopeza. 

 It was in the immediate vicinity of the common maple (Acer 

 campestre), and I conceive that the larva should be sought 

 by us in the keys of that plant. 



* Nepticula, n. sp. ? On the 15th of March, whilst walk- 

 ing in the grounds of the Villa Pamfili-Doria at Rome, I 

 observed in the leaves of Quercus Ilex the mines of a Nep- 

 ticula. All were however empty, though some were com- 

 paratively recent. I imagine from the thickness of the leaves 

 that the discolouration caused by a feeding larva must be very 

 slight, and that consequently the eye will require some little 

 training in order to find them readily. The probability is very 

 considerable that these larvae will belong to some species of 

 Nepticula at present unknown to us. 



