806 Bihliographical Notice. 



tongues, we shall only remark that the present arrangement in four 

 parallel columns on each two pages is decidedly inconvenient, and 

 reiterate the hope, expressed by us in a former notice, that, on the 

 commencement of the second series of ten volumes, Mr. Stainton will 

 adopt the system of printing the part in each language separately. 

 It is certainly an inconvenience in a work of reference to have only 

 half a page of reading on two pages of print. 



In his first three volumes Mr. Stainton treated exclusively of leaf- 

 mining species — Moths whose caterpillars live between the two 

 surfaces of leaves, eating the parenchyma and leaving channels or 

 mines, the aspect of which on the surface of the leaf is often very 

 characteristic of the species forming them. In the last-published 

 volume we have mining species again, some belonging to the genus 

 Nepticultti already treated of in the first volume, and others to the 

 smaller genus BucculatriXy of which more than half the species are 

 here illustrated and described. The habits of the species of Buccu- 

 latrix are very similar to those of the Nepticulce, but the larvae differ 

 in one or two remarkable particulars: the larvae of Bucculatrix 

 possess the six true legs on the thoracic segments, whilst those of 

 Nepticula are destitute of these ; and while the latter remain within 

 the mine until they are full-grown, and then go down into the ground 

 to undergo their change into the pupa state, the larvae of Bucculatrix 

 quit the mine when nearly mature, and, after moulting, become ex- 

 ternal feeders. The larva, whilst engaged in its mining operations, 

 is smooth, but its skin becomes rough after quitting the mine ; and, 

 in order to undergo its moult comfortably on first venturing into the 

 open air, it spins a flat silken covering, to which Mr. Stainton gives 

 the name of a cocoonet, beneath which the larva lies in a doubled 

 position. "When full-fed, the larva goes down to the stem of the 

 plant on which it has been feeding, or even to the ground or the 

 leaves of herbage, where it spins a curious ribbed cocoon in some 

 convenient corner, and there undergoes its further changes. 



The fourth and fifth volumes are devoted to the history of forty- 

 eight Moths of the extensive genus Coleophora, which includes, 

 according to Mr. Stainton, no less than 126 described species, all 

 natives of Europe. The larvae of these Moths feed upon plants be- 

 longing to a great number of natural orders, but chiefly Dicotyledo- 

 nous, only one being found upon a Coniferous plant (the Larch), 

 and five upon difl'erent species of rushes and grasses. The larvae, 

 while young, mine the leaves of the plants on which they feed, or dwell 

 in the interior of their seeds ; but, after the lapse of a short time, they 

 emerge from this concealment, and form a small case, sometimes of 

 silk, but usually of fragments of the leaves of plants, within which 

 they conceal their soft bodies, only protruding the head and anterior 

 segments for the purpose of walking about and feeding. The name 

 of the genus refers to this habit of the larva, of dwelHng in a sheath- 

 Hke case ; and many of these habitations are very singular in their 

 appearance. When the case becomes too small, the larva makes 

 itself a new one, generally by mining out the parenchyma of a leaf, 

 and uniting the free edges of the membranes with silk. The change 



