THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 211 



wood. — Charles Healy ; 74, Napier Street, Hoxton, N.j 

 January, 1869. 



A Life-history of Feniisa piimila. — Early in Jane certain 

 of the leaves of Rubus fruticosus (the common bramble) are 

 observed, on close scrutiny, to have one or more little dark 

 spots on their upper surface : an examination into the cause 

 of such a discoloration results in our discovering a little 

 Tenthredinideous larva feeding in the interior of the leaf, the 

 spotted part of the leaf being full or nearly so of frass : the 

 colour of the larva is white, with a dorsal vessel of a dull 

 green colour ; the mouth is dark brown ; the head pale yel- 

 lowish brown, darker at the sides, and with a dark clouded 

 patch on its dorsal surface ; the dorsal area of the 2nd seg- 

 ment is dark brown, and the back of each of the 3rd and 4th 

 segments has a narrow, darkish-coloured, interrupted plate ; 

 the ventral surface of the 2nd segment is furnished with a 

 brown plate ; the plates on the 3rd and 4th segments are of 

 a more irregular shape, and are likewise brown ; the 5th seg- 

 ment has a circular plate, whilst the decoration of the 6th 

 segment is confined to a little brown-coloured dot ; the six 

 thoracic or true legs are circled with brown rings, and the 

 5th, 12th and 13th segments are without legs ; the twelve 

 ventral legs are white, the .two anal legs being nearly sur- 

 rounded by a brown band ; there are twenty legs in all. In 

 due time the larva extends its mine, and in doing so forms a 

 short, narrow, serpentine track, which it leaves nearly filled 

 with frass ; it then alters its tactics, and widens its mine into 

 a small blotch : the first moult then takes place, the skin 

 being thrown off entire : the head is glossy white, with a 

 small black spot on each side ; its body is white, and the 

 whole of its markings have disappeared; the anterior portion 

 of the dorsal vessel is somewhat orange-coloured, the re- 

 mainder of the dorsal fluid being a mixture of orange and 

 dark green, the latter colour predominating : the larva lies 

 quiet in its mine until the markings of its body have re- 

 established themselves, a similar state of things taking place 

 at each of the moultings. We may often observe as many as 

 four little blotches in one bramble-leaf, each blotch being 

 tenanted by a Fenusa larva; and the larva3, in the course of 

 time, having consumed large quantities of the parenchyma of 

 the leaf, are then observed to break into one another's 



