DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES OF CONSPICUOUS SPECIES 279 



The perfect insect appears in May and August, and 

 may be either beaten from the branches of oak-trees, or 

 in moderately windy weather it may be found sitting on 

 the trunks of oak-trees. 



FAMILY XV. NEPTICULID^. 

 NEPTICULA AURELLA. 



This brilliant little insect is generally distributed 

 throughout the country and very common. 



The expansion of the wings is about J inch. The 

 fore-wings are of a rich golden-brown, tinged with 

 purple beyond the middle, and with the tip of the wing- 

 deep violet ; beyond the middle is a nearly straight pale 

 golden fascia ; the head is reddish (in the closely allied 

 N. splendidissima the head is black). 



The yellow larva makes long tortuous galleries in the 

 leaves of bramble ; it may be found throughout the 

 year. I have often collected it between Christmas and 

 New Year's Day. 



The perfect insect appears from March to August ; it 

 may be found at rest on palings and trunks of trees, or 

 may be met with on the wing soon after sunrise. 



The small Nepticula microtheriella, of which some- 

 times between thirty and forty larvae may be found in a 

 single nut-leaf, each in its slender little gallery, is much 

 smaller than N. aurella, little more than half the size. 



PTEROPHOEINA. 

 PTEROPHORUS ACANTHODACTYLUS. 



I sbLu^~ (Plate XVI., Fig. 5.) I 



This prettily marked Plume has occurred in various 



