THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 253 



Larva undesciibed. 



Neruatiis niger, palpis pallidis, abdominis medio et femovum 

 posticoium parte inf'eriori rufis, tarsorum posticoium 

 articulo primo dilatato. 



Two species of Nemalus, liaving the first joint of the 

 posterior tarsi dilated, have aheady been described in this 

 journal, namely, Septentrionalis, Z., in the second volume, 

 and Varus, De Villar., in the sixth, and I had no expectation 

 of being able to add a third species, as I regarded the two 

 others, mentioned by Villavet, as restricted to the south of 

 Europe. When I first saw the imago of this new species, 

 running about in a confectioner's glass, in which some 

 Nematus larva) had been placed, I thought that a larva of 

 Septentrionalis, whicli also lives on the birch, had, by some 

 mistake, got among them ; but I soon saw, to my delight, 

 that 1 had before me a species with which I was hitherto 

 unacquainted in the free slate. I am again indebted for this 

 discovery to the kindness of Mr. de Roo van Westmaas. 1 

 had, indeed, myself met with the larva in the wood near 

 Zeist, and had taken it home and made a drawing of it, but I 

 had failed in rearing it. Afterwards, in 1861, I received 

 some larvas from my friend De Roo, with which I was 

 equally unfortunate ; but at the end of September, last year, 

 he sent me a large number of larvae, which I at last succeeded 

 in rearing, so that I have both sexes of the imago. I am, 

 however, still unacquainted with the egg. The youngest 

 larva) which I saw had the appearance represented at fig. 1, 

 pi. 8, — very dark brown, almost black, with shining brown 

 head and yellow legs. In my earliest notes on this species 

 (written at least twenty-two years ago) I make the observation 

 that the smallest larvae were entirely shining dark brown, 

 with yellow anal legs or claspers, and that the yellow colour 

 of the anterior and intermediate legs was only acquired after 

 the larva) had moulted on the 29th of August. The nearly 

 full-grown larvae are of the size and ajjpearance of figs. 2 

 and 3. The head was depressed anteriorly, shining, of a dark 

 brown colour, approaching black, and covered with very 

 short gray hairs ; the parts of the mouth were yellow. 'J'he 

 four anterior abdominal segments yellow underneath ; the 

 body strongly wrinkled, black, with a shade of brown ; the 



