THE UTA GROUP OF GKT.EOHIIDJE. 291 



spins up between leaves, forming a tough cocoon, which should 

 not be opened at least before June. There is no necessity to 

 keep the cocoons out of doors, but a moderately damp atmosphere 

 is desirable. Some cut the end of the cocoon open about the 

 beginning of June, as the imago sometimes cannot get out 

 readily, especially if the cocoons are too dry ; if not cut, to 

 expose the cocoons to a shower of rain early in June is a good 

 practice. This moth usually emerges about 10 p.m., and should 

 be reserved till the following evening to dry its wings thoroughly. 

 It is then less liable to grease. 



The larva is best found by search on small beech trees during 

 September, and there is a dark variety, which, however, does 

 not produce the black variety of the moth. This seoms rather 

 to belong to larva from hilly and late localities, such as Booker, 

 about three miles to the north of Marlow. The progeny of the 

 black variety is not notably darker. 



This pupa does not lie over to a second season. The dark 

 variety of this moth is, as a rule, smaller than the type. 



This species occurs in all the woods about Marlow, in Bucks, 

 Berks, and Oxon, and the larva is taken, though sparingly, 

 every year, chiefly in September, by searching for it on the 

 small branches of the beech, confining the search to the wood 

 and not the leaves. When looking for the larva of Limacodes 

 asellus, on the contrary, the searcher must look at the leaves, 

 not the wood ; so much so, that in looking for one you seldom 

 find the other. The larva of S. fagi is also not unfrequently 

 found on the hazel by boys when nutting. 



"But are you sure," said I to a boy who brought me a fine 

 larva of S.faf/i from nut, "that the larva ate the leaves of the 

 nut, or had it merely fallen from the beech above?" "Oh!" 

 he replied, " it had eaten a gi-eat hole in the bush. That was 

 how I found it." 



Marlow, September 20, 1887. 



THE LITA GROUP OF GELECHlIDiE. 



By James W. Tutt. F.E.S. 



In the 'Entomologist' (pp. 28 — 80) is published a note of 

 mine, referring to the Lita group of the Gelechiidse found on the 



