December, 1888.] 145 



THE HABITS OF OPOSTEGA SAL ACHILLA, TE., Ac. 

 BY W. WARREN, M.A., F.E.S. 



I am glad to be able to record tbe accidental breeding of 0. 

 salaciella, Tr., and the name of its probable food-plant. In a bag 

 containing the roots and plants of Rumex acetosella, from which I was 

 breeding Gelecliia peliella, Tr., I found in July a single specimen of 

 salaciella, just emerged, and when the rubbish was subsequently 

 turned out, a second dead and dried specimen of the same insect was 

 discovered. No other plant besides the Rumex had been introduced 

 into the bag, so that, I think, we may safely conclude that this is its 

 food-plant ; and it probably feeds among the flowers or in the flower- 

 stalk. For having observed that the peliella larvae were in the habit 

 of emerging at night from their silken tubes at the base of the plants, 

 and spinning fine threads up the stems to the flower-heads on which 

 they fed, I replenished the original stock of food with a bunch of 

 fresh flower-stems, and I think it most probable that in these last the 

 salaciella larvae were hidden. The plant grows freely in all the 

 localities where the perfect insect is usually met with. It may be 

 useful to English Micro-Lepidopterists to briefly mention here what 

 little is known of the habits, and more especially of the larval state, 

 of the other species of the genus. 



O. {Bohetnannia, Stn., Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., ser. 2, iii, p. 18) quadri- 

 maculella, Boh., which seems to me to belong here, is certainly addicted 

 to alders, and the larvae will be probably found to feed in the flowers 

 or flower-stalks in spring. 



O. spatulella, H.-S., said to frequent elms, and also to hibernate 

 in the imago state (cf. Stn., Ent. Mo. Mag., 1877, vol. xiv, p. 140), 

 possibly feeds within the elm (wych elm ?) flowers and seeds, or the 

 flower-stalks. 



O. auritella, H., which seems to be very rare, if, indeed, the real 

 auritella has ever been taken, in England, is stated to have been once 

 bred accidentally by Knaack, at Stettin, from a stem of Caltha 

 palustris. According to Biittner, the larva is active, pale green in 

 colour, pupating in a rather strong white cocoon. The imago should 

 be out in vi, vii, in marshy places. It is recorded from Lebus (Erank- 

 fort-on-the-Oder), on thistles (Zeller) ; from Potsdam, in large 

 numbers, among Lycopus europceus (gypsy wort) (Hinneberg). 



O. crepusculella, Z. : "Larva probably on Mentha.''' This is, I 

 think, a very likely suggestion : where crepusculella flies commonly in 

 Wicken Een, Mentha palustris is abuudaiit. 



