THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Vou. LIV.] OCTOBER, 1921. [No.-701 
THE LIFE-CYCLE AND HABITS OF CYDIA LEGU- 
MINANA, Z., WITH A NOTE ON ITS SYNONYMY. 
By W. G. SaHeupon, F.Z.S8., F.E.S. 
In the year 1915, as related in vol. xlix, pp. 19-20 of this 
magazine, I was so fortunate as to meet with specimens of this 
hitherto very rare species, which had not been recorded for 
many years, in the Wicken district, and since then I have been 
engaged at intervals in working out its life-history and habits. 
The problem has not been an easy one to solve, largely 
because | was only able to visit its haunts at intervals, but also 
because its real larval habits and pabulum were quite unsuspected, 
and, when ascertained, difficult to follow. 
It has generally been assumed that the larva fed, as do 
several of its supposed near relatives, and as its name would 
suggest, on the seeds of some leguminous plant, and one 
persistent student of its habits even relates that he gathered all 
the seed-pods of the only likely leguminous plant growing in its 
Epping Forest locality without result. In view of what I have 
to relate this is not to be wondered at. 
As stated in my note (loc. cit.), the imago at Wicken frequents 
hedges of very mixed growth in which I could not find any 
leguminous plant. I may here say that the last captor who 
made a record of taking specimens previous to 1915, the late 
Lord Walsingham, informed me shortly before his death that his 
examples taken in 1878 occurred in the same hedge as that from 
which my 1915 captures came. 
My first example was beaten out of elm into my net about 
noon on June 20th, 1915; later the same day I beat or captured 
flying several others, and during the course of my stay at 
Wicken of about one week, hard work resulted in my obtaining 
about fifty specimens. 
Almost all these came from the hedge I have mentioned, the 
bulk of which consisted of the common elm (Ulmus campestris), 
and the moths seemed in some way attached to this tree. In 
addition to most of the hedge itself being elm, there were numerous 
elm trees in the hedgerow, some of them were pollarded, and 
some were trees of large growth forty or fifty feet in height. 
The insects flew freely and swiftly in the afternoon sun, but as 
they were small, dark, and inconspicuous, and as, moreover, the 
hedge swarmed with Simaethis fabriciana, which flew with, and 
ENTOM.—ocYToBER, 1921. U 
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