MINERS 6i 



then mines out a very fine gallery, leading away 

 from the blotch, and about one-sixth of an inch 

 long. At the end of the gallery it changes [its 

 skin] a second time, after which it mines out another 

 circular blotch about one-quarter of an inch in 

 diameter, which has a black appearance. When 

 this is complete it makes a pale ring round the 

 blotch ; in this it changes once more, and then 

 commences the last part of the mine. The last 

 portion forms a large irregular blotch, which 

 occupies most of one half of a laburnum leaflet, and 

 is marked with many curved dark lines. . . . When 

 fully grown it comes out of the mine to spin its 

 cocoon. . . . Having found the right situation, it 

 builds a wall of silken strands on each side of itself, 

 and then between the two walls it spins a shuttle- 

 shaped cocoon in which it turns to a pupa. When 

 mature there emerges a beautiful white moth with 

 black and yellow rays at the tip of the wings. An 

 almost similar moth feeds on the common broom, 

 the leaves of which are very small and not very 

 numerous. But this species, Cemiostoma sparti- 

 foliella, does not trouble about the leaves, but lives 

 beneath the bark of the twigs, where it makes 

 long serpentine galleries in which it lives throughout 

 the winter. When the warm days of May come it 

 leaves its winter retreat and spins its white cocoon 

 on broom stems. In a warm evening in July the 

 moths may be seen flying in swarms around the 

 bushes " (Sich). 



Other genera besides the genus Nepticula share 



