NOTES ON COLEOPHORA NIGRICELLA, ETC. 11 



of the wings extends less than in the type. Length of body, 18mm. 

 <? , 27mm. $ ; of pronotum, 5mm. <? , 7mm. ? ; of elytra, 16mm. <? , 

 24mm. ? . 



The type occurs in the north of Africa, but the variety has been 

 found at Cartagena in southern Spain. 



Genus II : Platyphyma, Fischer. 



This genus has the wings abortive and elytra rudimentary ; the 

 only European species is very small, and superficially somewhat 

 resembles Podisma, but differs in the generic characters. One European 

 species. 



1. Platyphyma giorn^, Rossi. 



Small, brown, wingless. Length of body, 11. 5mm. -13mm. ^ , 

 15mm. -18mm. $ ; of pronotum, 3mm.-3-5mm. ^ , 3-6mm.-4-8mm. 

 ? ; of elytra, 2-8mm. 3 , 2-5mm.-8-2mm. ? . 



Abundant throughout southern Europe. Extremely common in 

 the south of France, and all Spain but the north, and in Portugal ; 

 the larvge appears in July, and the perfect insect passes the winter 

 and lives until the following early spring ; it occurs in dry herbage, 

 and is very often found in copula. Brunner describes a variety 

 rujipes, which has the lower sulcus of the posterior femora red, which 

 is peculiar^ to Andalusia. 



(To be continued.) 



Notes on Coleophora nigricella and C. conyzae. 



By H. J. TURNEE, F.E.S. 



Coleophora nigricella. — Attached to a leaf of the hawthorn sent 

 me by Mr. Sich, on April 14th, with the cases of C. hemerohiella on it, 

 was a roughly made curved and keeled case of quite a different pattern 

 and construction. This I rightly supposed to be the young case of 

 C. nigricella. The larva it contained fed on until May 5th, when it 

 fastened its case down, and after it had remained so for a week, I 

 suspected that it was dead. To my surprise, on May 14th, it 

 commenced to move about again, and from the next mine made, a 

 new case was constructed, but this time a straight one. This new 

 case was made from a portion of a leaf quite away from the margin, 

 and was finally cut out by May 27th. This newly-cut case was 

 very flimsy at first, flattened, with an irregular waved keel all round. 

 The anal valves were not formed, and, although the mouth was fixed 

 down, it was not yet properly fashioned. At the field meeting of 

 the South London Entomological Society, held on May 14th, at 

 Ashtead, several larvae of this species were kindly given me by Mr. 

 Edwards and other members, all beaten from sloe. All the cases were 

 straight in form, and were evidently only just cut out, as they were in 

 a more or less unfinished condition. Nearly all were very rough, and 

 of a light brown, that they might be mistaken for C. fuscedinella. But 

 when these cases were finished there was no fear of them being taken 

 for that species. As in C. hemerohiella, these straight cases are the 

 final ones, and they are also made much darker by a deposit made by 

 the larva on the inside. The larva of this species is most restless, in 

 nature as well as in confinement, moving continually from leaf to leaf, 

 mining only a very small area around the mouth of the case, and 



