NEPTICULA ANOMALELLA. 209 



an inch long by an eighth of an inch in width, the larva finally 

 escaping by the upper side. [The above description was made from 

 mines of the red-headed species in leaves of Rosa sempervirejis] . The 

 mine in Rosa canina is identical with the above, except that the red or 

 brownish margin of the gallery in R. semperoirens is dark-green with a 

 brownish tinge. Stainton writes : " The larva, as soon as hatched, 

 bores into the leaf, and commences its irregular wavy gallery, the first 

 portion of which is indicated by the very slender line of excrement 

 being reddish-brown ; before it has proceeded, however, above a 

 quarter of an inch, its excrement becomes black, and can be distinctly 

 traced as having been deposited in little arcs of circles at first filling 

 up the whole width of the mine, but afterwards, as from the growth 

 of the larva the mine becomes wider, only occupying the central 

 portion of it. When full-fed, the larva splits the upper skin of the 

 leaf, and creeps out ; and if it be the summer brood, the larva proceeds 

 to the footstalk to spin its cocoon." De Geer writes : " The gallery 

 does not proceed in a straight line, but makes very irregular curves. 

 The larva mines sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, often 

 passing across the gallery already mined. At its origin the gallery is 

 not thicker than a hair, but it afterwards increases in width con- 

 tinuously to the end where it is widest. It is of a dingy brown 

 colour for nearly the first half of its length, the colour produced by the 

 excrement which occupies the whole of the interior portion ; the 

 remaining portion is not entirely filled, but forms along the centre of 

 the mine a continuous brown streak, and leaving on each side an 

 empty space, which appears whitish, because it is the colour of the 

 epidermis of the leaf. In the first part of the gallery the excrement 

 forms a continuous thread ; in the middle division the pellets are 

 arranged in curves zigzagging from one side to the other ; in the last 

 division the blackish grains are placed in rows along the gallery." 



LARVA. The larvae are not more than two lines in length. They 

 are of a yellow tint, inclining to orange, but the head is brown. The 

 body is divided into twelve segments, and diminishes in width pos- 

 teriorly ; it is furnished with some very fine hairs. The transparency 

 of the skin allows of some of the internal organs being seen. The 

 head is furnished with two flat and slender mandibles, and is conse- 

 quently well suited for gnawing and detaching the pulp of the leaf 

 without injuring the upper cuticle ; these teeth are much advanced in 

 front of the head, and form a point. Beneath the head is a little 

 spinneret, like a prolonged teat, very similar to that of other cater- 

 pillars. The legs are eighteen in number, placed in two rows in 

 pairs. They are similar to the membranous legs of the larvaB of 

 saw-flies, pyramidal or conical in shape, without booklets, and are 

 placed on the nine segments following the first (De Geer). Stainton's 

 description of the larva is as follows : " Length 2 lines. Amber- 

 yellow, shining, transparent ; the dorsal vessel darker yellow ; head 

 small, piceous, lighter at the sides, leaving the centre as a dark 

 quadrate patch ; the prothorax anteriorly piceous, interrupted in the 

 centre by a broad yellow line, and rounded posteriorly, this colouring 

 being evidently the hinder portion of the head showing through." 

 Wood says that the prothoracic markings are the equivalents of the two 

 halves of a pro-thoracic plate. They are black in colour, and of 

 unusual size, so that they project well beyond the head. The alimen- 



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