ERIOPELTIS FKSTHM:. 23 



widely rounded ; loop of rostrum extremely short, not 

 reaching beyond the insertion of intermediate legs. 

 Anal ring of six hairs. Dermis : anterior margin, 

 above, with a series of conical spines, of which the 

 central pair are longest and most slender ; there is also 

 a series of minute spines along the margin, indicating 

 the articulation of each segment. Anal lobes very large, 

 each furnished with one central long hair and a much 

 shorter one on the inner surface. 



Ova, reddish pink, laid amongst fine white filaments ; 

 I have counted 355 in one ovisac. 



Habitat. This extremely local insect was first dis- 

 covered in this country by Mr. Gr. C. Bignell * on the 

 22nd of July, 1885, near Whitsand Bay, on Festuca 

 bromoides. The only two examples of the sacs which 

 he found there were forwarded to Mr. Douglas. 

 Subsequently Messrs. Bignell and Scott found the 

 species at Bickleigh ; and Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse found 

 ovisacs at Folkestone Warren. It is abundant at Ince, 

 Cheshire, but not met with elsewhere in the county. 

 It is also abundant at Huddersfield (Mosley) ; and I 

 have met with it very sparingly on the Cotswolds at 

 Cranham, near Gloucester. It lives almost exclusively 

 on grass, chiefly of the genus Festuca, and is most 

 abundant on warm sloping banks with a dry subsoil. 

 I have occasionally found it occupying the same leaf 

 with Eriococcu* insic/nis, Newst., and in a single 

 instance on a leaf of the " field wood-rush " (Luzula 

 campestris) with Sir/iioretia Inzulds, L. Duf. 



Habits. This is a very difficult species to find in its 

 early stages, and all attempts to rear it on home-grown 

 plants have so far failed. I have only twice succeeded 

 in finding the female before the formation of the ovi- 

 sac ; but I have succeeded in rearing great numbers 

 of larvae, which appear in the beginning of June. 

 The female generally completes the formation of the 

 ovisac in August, and I have often found it filled with 

 eggs by the "end of the first week of the same month. 



* ' Ent. Mo. Mag./ vol. xxii, p. 141 (1885). 



