THE NEPTICULIDES. 181 



and that of the remainder, each separate from the head, yet still held 

 together sufficiently to keep their places fairly. The egg of Hetcro- 

 tjcnca awlla is a flat, colourless, transparent speck, much like that of 

 Nepticula, but not resembling that of any true Bombycid species " 

 (Chapman, Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1893, pp. 115 et seq.). 



Meyrick writes: "Nepticula is a very large genus, quite cosmo- 

 politan, but probably attaining its greatest development in Europe. 

 Owing to their small size, and the similarity of appearance, the species 

 present considerable difficulty, and have been so much neglected that 

 their distribution is hardly known except in England and Germany, 

 and even there very imperfectly. Most of the species can seldom be 

 obtained except by rearing the larvae, but some fly freely in the sun- 

 shine. Imago with fore-wings lanceolate. Larva without developed 

 legs or prolegs, but with pairs of rudimentary ventral processes on 

 3, 4, and 6 11, or rarely wholly apodal. Pupa in a firm cocoon 

 usually outside the mine" (Handbook, etc., p. 711). 



As a matter of fact, with the exception of Fernald, there is scarcely 

 a really good micro-lepidopterist in North America at the present 

 time, yet, there is a by no means small list of American Nepticulids, 

 and one would suspect that if properly worked, the Nearctic would be 

 fully as productive in species belonging to this superfamily as the 

 Palaearctic region. 



There is no doubt that the NEPTICULIDES are a very ancient super- 

 family. The larval habit of mining in leaves has resulted in the 

 traces of the work of a larva being discovered in a leaf found in brown 

 coal of Lower Miocene age. This mine was described under the 

 name of Nepticvlafoutti*, in Meyer and Dunker's Palaeontographica, x. 

 (1861-3), and mentioned by Goss, Proc. Geol. Association, v., No. 6, 

 p. 57 (1877). That the group is much older than this there cannot be 

 the least doubt. One would suppose that it existed throughout the 

 Mesozoic period, and probably far back into Palaeozoic times. 



As to the ease with which these charming atoms can be collected, 

 Wood tells us that he has captured, near Tarrington, on a bit of 

 rough, hilly country, on the limestone, barely three miles across in any 

 direction more than fifty species. It is of very little use attempting 

 to collect many of these species in the imaginal state, in fact, some 

 species, common enough as larvae, are never seen in the perfect con- 

 dition at all. When the leaves containing the mines are picked, they 

 must be put at once into tins, and not allowed to become too dry. 

 On arrival home the mines should be sorted carefully, each kind of 

 mine being separated from those of a different species ; the leaves of 

 each separate batch should then be loosely but carefully rolled up in 

 some soft paper, and placed into a tin or glass jar. The larvae feed up 

 so rapidly that at the end of a week, at most, they will have left the 

 leaves and spun their cocoons, generally in little clusters on the paper. 

 They can then be removed to little glass tubes, or to flower-pots with 

 a glass cover, and labelled with the name of the plant, and a note as 

 to the manner of mining. Many larvae of those species that feed up 

 in the autumn do not pupate until the spring, and since some leave 

 their cocoons at this time, and seek a fresh place in which to pupate, 

 care must be taken that they do not then escape. Like almost all 

 species of Lepidoptera that hybernate as larvae in their cocoons, 

 Eucleids, etc., the Nepticulids can be bred throughout the winter by 



