228 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The cocoon is white papyraceous, and so thin that the meta- 

 morphoses of the insect within are plainly visible ; in my 

 examples the cocoons were constructed within leaves rolled by 

 the hosts. 



Microdus mediator, Nees.* 



Up to the present included in our British list on the strength 

 of a single female taken by Fitch at Maldon, August 11th, 1870, 

 and described by Marshall. t This specimen is still in good con- 

 dition. The species is very close to lagubrator, Eatry.:^ ; indeed, 

 little but size seems to separate the two. Nees gives the length 

 of mediator as 4| mm., which is far larger than any of our 

 British examples, none of which exceed 3 mm. — a figure agreeing 

 more closely with Katryeburg's species. Five specimens taken 

 by Dale (one marked " G. W.," the others without data) and 

 erroneously named by him cinguUpes are certainly of the same 

 species as the insect in the Fitch Collection. I reared a female 

 from an unknown host, July 22nd, 1908, and beat a second from 

 Douglas Fir, in the New Forest, August 31st, 1912. 



All these examples have the first segment of the abdomen 

 somewhat coarsely striolate, second stippled, coriaceous, and 

 third exhibiting faint indications of the same. Antennae 28-jointed 

 (excepting in two cases, where the number is 29), terebra slightly 

 shorter than abdomen, valves subclavate ; second cubital cell 

 subquadrate, irregular, wings infumated (considerable variation 

 is shown in the tint of the wings, but the age of the specimens 

 may have somethingtodo with this), nervures and stigma fuscous. 

 The male, hitherto unknown, appears scarcely to differ from the 

 female, excepting, of course, in the lack of terebra and the usual 

 rather narrower abdomen. 



Microdus riigidosus, Nees.§ 



The only British record is that of Curtis (' Guide,' 2nd ed., col. 

 116). Four specimens so named in the Dale Collection must all 

 be referred to the genus Earinus (see E. transversus). 



Genus 4, Earinus, Wesm.jj 



Wesmael invented this genus to receive those species, pre- 

 viously included in Microdus, having the first cubital cell divided 

 from the first diacoidal by a distinct nervure. The character, 

 rightly considered by Marshall to be of no more than sectional 

 or specific value, is in itself unreliable, for while I have seen 



* ' Mon.,' vol. i, p. 146. 



t ' Trans. Entom. Soc.,' 1885, p. 276. 



I ' Ich. de Foest.,' vol. iii, p. 45. 



§ 'Mon.,' vol. i, p. 148. 



I| ' Nouv. Mem. Ac. Brux.,' 1837, p. 8. 



