NOTES ON COLEOPHORA FUSCEDINELLA. 311 



■ednm, and C. lujale, Poh/f/onia c-albinn, Eugonia polijchloros, Melanargia 

 galatea, Paran/e er/eria, Epinephele tWionus, Enodia hyperantlms, Strymon 

 tv-album, Ruralis betulae, Bithi/s q}iercm, Aricia astrarcJie, Cupido 

 minima, Neweobius Incinia, and Urbicola comma. 



Notes on Coleophora fuscedinella. 



By HENRY TUENER, F.E.S. 



This species occurs very commonly all round London ; there seems 

 scarcely any elm bushes or trees which do not produce it. On May 

 8th, 1904, I found numbers of larvae at Catford, only just from hyber- 

 nation. The young curved cases were being added to by very narrow 

 flounces of cuticle, the ragged overlapping edges of each successive 

 mouth-opening getting gradually rubbed ofl", leaving the outside of the 

 case rugose to fairly smooth, according to the age of the additions. 

 The junctions of the successive additions showing as striations, encir- 

 cling the cases obliquely. They are usually continuous round the case, 

 but not always so. A new addition often consists of six or seven of 

 these flounces, the newest one being placed inside the last newest. 

 The first straight case of this species I met with in 1904, on May 14th, 

 on birch, at Ashtead. 



The ground colour of the larva is of a darker brown than that of 

 the larva of C. badiipennella, and this may serve to roughly separate 

 the two species when both are present on the same trees in their curved 

 •case stage. Generally, the larvae of the two species are very similar. 

 In C. fuscedinella the 1st thoracic segment has a large dark dorsal plate, 

 the 2nd segment has two small black patches, while the 3rd segment 

 has no trace of plates. The spiracular plates are present as black dots, 

 those on the 3rd segment being extremely small. The larva has only 

 three pairs of abdominal claspers, as Mr. Sich has elsewhere pointed 

 out. On one occasion a larva was accidentally pulled out of its case by 

 a thread. It was placed with its head close to the mouth of its case 

 and gently touched, when it readily re-entered its house, turned round 

 sharply, and presented its head at the mouth opening. (The case, I 

 may say, was held down firmly, to prevent movement while the larva 

 was re-entering.) 



On May 16tb, I noticed a larva take up a position on a leaf away 

 from the margin and commence to mine. On May 17th, it had formed 

 a new case and cut it out, except the head end. The case was very 

 pale, and appeared to be not .yet thickened by silk inside, as it was 

 <3uite soft and impressionable. The anal extremity was obscurely 

 three-cornered. 



On May 23rd, at Amersham, I took two very small curved cases on 

 birch, and one on nut. On May 29th, at Chatham, I met with the 

 species in numbers on nut and elm, a few cases on birch, and one on 

 hornbeam. The larv^ seem to feed on both surfaces of the leaves, 

 perhaps more on the lower side than the upper. The cases found on 

 nut were darker in colour, probably from the colour of the dried cuticle 

 of nut being a darker and richer brown than the dried cuticle of elm. 

 The blotches made on the leaves of both nut and elm are circular, or 

 nearly so, in most cases in nature, and generally one larva will make 

 many blotches on each of the numerous leaves on a twig. The blotches 

 made by C. bicolorella are easily distinguished from those of C. fuscecU- 



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