AN IMPORTANT PREDATORY INSECT. 
(ELrastria scitula Rambur. ) 
An interesting paper upon the habits and metamorphoses of a pre- 
daceous Lepidopter destructive to Bark-lice has just been published by 
Dr. H. Rouzaud, of Montpellier, France. This insect, which is a small 
Noctuid moth, was carefully studied by Dr. Rouzaud during 1891 and 
1892, and it has been ascertained that it is a very important factor in 
the life history of the Black Scale of the Olive, Lecanium olew Ber- 
nard, and of several allied Coccide. Although described sixty years 
ago by Rambur, the species has been little studied. The larva was 
unknown until Milliére in 1875 published a statement that he had 
received specimens from Himmighoffen, of Barcelona, each of which 
Fic. 1.—Erastria scitula; a, larva from below; b,same from above; c, above, in case; d, case of full- 
grown larva; e, pupa; f, moth—enlarged (after Rouzaud). 
carried a sort of convex carapace or papyraceous envelope which served 
as a dwelling place, and in which it transformed. In 1884 the same 
author, upon the authority of Peragallo the elder, showed that the 
larva is predatory, feeding upon Coccide upon the Peach and plants 
of the genus Nerium, on the shores of the Mediterranean. The extra- 
ordinary form of the larva is mentioned, and it is compared, properly 
enough, with that of Thalpochares communimacula. The description, 
however, was not exact, as Rouzaud points out. 
Rouzaud had been engaged in studying Lecanium olec for some years, 
and in June, 1891, observed an adult of Erastria ovipositing upon the 
