292 [June, 



"It lives in companies inside the flowering stem of the onion, not 

 making separate galleries and not ejecting its excrement. 



" Towards the beginning of September the larvae are full fed and 

 quit the stem, some perforating holes for that purpose, but the greater 

 number emerging by the top of the stem. They spin up separately, 

 being only social in the larval state, some spin up amongst the 

 peduncles, but the greater number descend and disperse on reaching 

 the ground. The cocoon which they form is very pretty, white, silky, 

 with net- work, and somewhat firm. 



" In three weeks time the imago appears ; it lives through the 

 winter, and in the following spring the female deposits her eggs on the 

 young flowering stem of the onions grown for seed. 



" Assectella must be considered as an insect injurious to horticul- 

 ture, as though not absolutely damaging the plant in which it lives, it 

 diminishes the number of seeds in the expected crop." 



Kaltenbach, in his " Die Pflanzenfeinde aus der Klasse der 

 Insecten" (p. 720), says that "the small yellowish-green larva feeds 

 in July, August and September, in the tubular leaves of the onion 

 {Allium cepd) ; it is found just as abundantly in the heart-leaves of 

 the leek {Allium porrum), which it often, in company with a Dipterous 

 larva, eats down to the root. It assumes the pupa state, outside the 

 food-plant, in a loose, elongate cocoon. The imago appears in from 

 eight to ten days, and there is a second brood in September and 

 October. The first brood of the imago appears in July and August." 



It has always been a wonder to me that this species, which is 

 common at Brussels and common at Paris, should never have been recor- 

 ded as British. The same feeling of wonder has no doubt been felt by 

 German Entomologists, and hence, as we have an Acrolepia betuletella, 

 which does not occur with them, they have assumed that our betuletella 

 must be their assectella, and thus we constantly find they give that 

 as a synonym, and many, as Curtis' name has one year priority over 

 Zeller's, use the name betulella or betuletella for assectella. This, 

 however, is a mistake, the two insects are essentially different, assectella 

 is always grey, betuletella always, more or less, brown ; moreover, in 

 betuletella the anterior-wings are considerably narrower than in assec- 

 tella ; the pale dorsal spot is more expanded on the inner margin in 

 assectella, whilst the subapical black spot is much more pronounced in 

 betuletella. Unfortunately, assectella, like many another internal feeder, 

 is extremely apt to turn greasy, and most of my bred specimens have 

 undergone that process. 



