120 THE entomologist's kecord. 



at the mouth opening, besides the enlargement in circumference, never 

 consists of more than a few very narrow rings around the margin. On 

 J une 4th, during the same Society's Field Meeting at Bookham, I met with 

 a few cases on the Common, some of which were small. These were, 

 apparently, also ichneumoned, for no imagines were produced. 



CoLEOPHORA PYERHULiPENNELLA. — Of this species Several friends 

 have given me cases with larvae. Mr. Main, from the New Forest, on 

 April 30th ; Mr. West, from Shirley, on May 5th, and from Oxshott, 

 on June 5th ; this last was a very small case. On June 22nd, two of 

 these larvae were still feeding, but by the 24th all were quiescent. 

 The larvae apparently did not pupate successfully, probably the fact 

 was that they suffered from absence of fresh food on several occasions, 

 as heath is a somewhat difficult plant for me to readily obtain. I did 

 not breed a single one. Nor was I much more fortunate in 1902, when 

 I swept some forty cases on Horsell Common, Woking, as only one 

 larva successfully reached the imago stage. The one I exhibit 

 emerged in mid-July. 



CoLEOPHORA LARicELLA. — This species is probably the commonest of 

 the whole genus, and of considerable economic importance, in that it 

 exists in countless numbers in many larch plantations, where its 

 ravages in the needles may be readily observed. No doubt, in many 

 places, it so injures the chlorophyll-bearing parts of the trees that a 

 very considerable check is put to their growth. Wherever I have met 

 with larch trees, there I have found the little pest, so that it is almost 

 invidious to give any locality. My knowledge of the larva of this 

 species begins with the winter, during which it hybernates in a thin, 

 elongated dark case at the axil of the spurs which bear the bundles of 

 needles. Probably the blackish colour of the case is due to weathering. 

 Later on, when the larva recommences to feed, it goes to the tip, or 

 near the tip, of a needle, and begins to mine. The question is, how 

 does it do this? The winter-case is left in the axil, and the larva must 

 either (1) come out of the anal end of its case, crawl down outside on to 

 the stem, ascend the twig and a needle, commence to mine, and 

 gradually bury itself in its mine. All this must be done without a 

 case, and by a larva, too, it must be remembered, which does not 

 possess abdominal claspers sufficiently well-developed to be of any 

 service. Or, (2) as an alternative, the larva must mine in the bark of the 

 stem and twig until it reaches a needle, up which it mines, and from 

 which it eventually makes its first spring case. So far we have no 

 evidence which is the true solution, or even whether either is probable. 



Mr. Bankes sent me a few larvae on May 5th, 1904, and I noted 

 that all of them had already assumed their first spring case, and some 

 had increased its size by a clumsy addition. The larvae chiefly attack 

 the tips of the needles, rendering them thin and papery, so that they 

 flutter about in the wind. Cases are frequently met with at the base 

 of the needles squeezed closely into the middle of a bundle. After a 

 few days' retirement in this position they move out and recommence 

 feeding ; probably this is simply a place of refuge during the change 

 of skm. When they are ready to pupate they retire in just the same 

 way, and their metamorphosis takes place there. I noted on May 11th 

 that most of the cases sent me by Mr. Bankes had the anal end open, 

 without any valves, just as if cut off with a pair of scissors. These 

 had probably been enlarged, and the extremity had to be properly 



