Brachycolus stellariae. 



These insects invest both Stellaria holostea and S. graminea. 

 In October the female lays minute black, oval-shaped eggs, 

 from which hatch in the following spring numerous larvae, 

 which, by the perforations of their rostra, cause the rolling 

 together of the edges of the long, narrow leaves, forming them 

 into hollow pods. James Hardy, in "The North British 

 Agriculturalist," part ii., p. 788, has thus described the species : 

 " It is eminently social, and is not unworthy of the notice of 

 the vegetable physiologist, from the parts of the plants in which 

 it nestles undergoing a fantastic disarrangement. Its favourite 

 plant is the stitchwort, Stellaria holostea and ^. grainitiea, on 

 which it is found within a hollow pod fabricated from the leaves, 

 each side of the leaf being brought together above to form a 

 canopy. It checks the growth of the shoot in such a manner 

 that the leaves cluster into rigid tufts ; vegetable irritation 

 completes the structure. During the summer it migrates from 

 the stitchwort to one of the grasses, Holcus mollis. There it 

 likewise revels in the centre of a tuft of leaves, for these leaves, 

 being prevented from receding, embrace each other at the bases 

 like those of a sedge. In this manner a kind of boat is formed 

 for the protection of the colony." 



The illustration is of specimens gathered at Hastings by the 

 author. 



