MARCH. 45 



hedge bank, and let us do it carefully : take up by the 

 roots a tuft of that soft, velvety-looking grass at 

 your feet ; if you hold it between your eye and the 

 light, you will perceive them mined in broad streaks of 

 a whitish colour, in which there is very little excre- 

 ment ; this is the mine of Elachista rufocinerea, the 

 larvae of which you will perceive at the end of the 

 mine ; the grass is Holcus mollis, a grass of bad qua- 

 lity, although of good appearance, disliked by cattle, 

 and indicative of bad pastures. 



If we examine the leaves of Dactylis glomerata we 

 shall find that many of them are mined from the points 

 downwards ; but instead of the leaf remaining flat, it is 

 slightly rounded, owing to the epidermis on the front 

 of the leaf being puckered or laid in folds similar to the 

 mine of a Lithocolletis ; this is the work of the larva 

 of Elachista gangabella; it occurs near Beckenham, 

 and sometimes feeds on Holcus mollis; it moves readily 

 from leaf to leaf. 



If we search the leaves of Carex glauca growing in 

 the shelter of bushes, we shall probably find the beau- 

 tiful red-spotted larvae of Elachista cinereopunctella 

 mining downwards from the tips of the leaves, in which 

 they have apparently wintered ; it occurs prolifically 

 among the junipers on Sanderstead Downs: the pupae 

 are situated at the base of the leaves, in which situa- 

 tion they may be readily collected. 



In the stems of the reeds (Arundo phragmites) grow- 

 ing ill yon wet ditch, the larvae of Chilo phragmitellus 

 occur ; while in the stems of the reed meadow-grass 

 growing by their side the larvae of Chilo foTJicellus 

 will be found ; in the damp moss by the ditch side we 



