148 OBSERVATIONS ON TINEINA. 



p. 452, has given the differential characters and described 

 the transformations of the two species. As both cannot 

 retain the name Imperialella, one has had to cede the 

 sceptre, and it became a very intricate problem to decide 

 which was the original Imperialella. 



The species figured in the 8th volume of the " Natural 

 History of the Tineina," of which the larva was discovered 

 by Herr Ernst Hofmann in 1860, in the leaves of Orohus 

 Tfiger, must now no longer bear the name Imperialella ; it is 

 the Hofmanmella of Schleich. 



The larva of the true Imperialella mines the leaves of the 

 comfrey {Symphytum officinale) in August. Dr. Schleich 

 thus describes it: "The larva mines at first in spiral gal- 

 leries, closely filled with greenish excrement, but these soon 

 form a larger blotch on the underside of the leaf; the lower 

 cuticle at first remains flat, but afterwards assumes an in- 

 flated appearance and becomes brownish. When the mine 

 has attained this stage we can see indications of it on the 

 upper side of the leaf in the brownish spots, which ulti- 

 mately unite and form an irregular wrinkled blotch from 

 three-quarters to an inch in diameter. The excrement of 

 the larva is then brownish and lies irregularly scattered in 

 the mine. Sometimes we find two larvas together in one 

 domicile, but often there are a great many mines in one leaf, 

 even as many as twenty. As long as the 14-footed larva is 

 feeding, it has a transparent, pale greenish, almost colourless 

 appearance, with a distinct dark green intestinal canal 

 throughout its length. When full fed (it is about 2^" long), 

 the dark green dorsal stripe diminishes in size as it deposits 

 its last grains of excrement, and the entire body assumes 

 very quickly, often in a single day, a uniform blood-red 

 colour ; only the flat and pointed head and the anterior legs 

 remain brownish. It then quits the mine and spins imme- 



