exemplified in the Genus Elachista. 87 



year, several have now been bred by Mr. Boyd (who exhibited a 

 specimen at tlie June Meeting of the Society), by Mr. Douglas 

 and by myself; and the imago proves to be Elachista 2'reitsch- 

 kiella, of which a figure and description appeared in the conclud- 

 ing number of Fischer von Roslerstanim's excellent work (PI. 

 100, fig. 4, p. 297). The position of the insect when at rest is 

 rather different from that of other Elachislce. The wings meet at 

 a more acute angle over the back, as in the genus Tinagma, which 

 in the " Insecta Britannica," p. 179, I have on that account com- 

 pared to Cilix sjmiula. 



Elachista Treitschkiella was so rare in our Collections, that at 

 the time of writing the Insecta Britannica I had only seen two old 

 specimens, in Mr. H. Doubleday's Collection; two others were 

 subsequently discovered in the late Mr. Stephens's Collection, when 

 the British Tincina of the British Museum were being re-arranged. 



It seems strange now that the transformations of an insect, 

 which in its larva state, from its extreme peculiarity of habit, is 

 so very noticeable, should have so long remained unknown, not 

 only here, but on the Continent,* where the perfect insect had been 

 observed swarming round the Cornus bushes ; but it is even still 

 stranger that a larva, with a precisely similar habit, should have 

 been observed and described upwards of a hundred years ago. 

 The original description, which I have not had an opportunity of 

 seeing, occurs in the " Memoires de Mathematique et de Physique, 

 presentes a I'Academie Royale des Sciences, par divers Savans," 

 torn. i. p. 177 (4to. a Paris, 1750); it is referred to by De Geer, 

 tom. i. p. 449, and by Goeze, in the " Naturforscher," Stuck iv, p. 1 6 ; 

 the latter writer repeats the whole of the history of the insect, which 

 appears to have been contained in a letter from Godehen de Ri- 

 ville. Commander of Malta, to Reaumur. As it is this reflected 

 light only that has reached me, we see the use of such transcripts ; 

 and as the " Naturforscher" is not always accessible, nor is it to 

 all intelligible, I hesitate not to swell the bulk of this paper by 

 transcribing a large portion of the notice. 



" I now relate to you the history of a larva ntiining the vine 

 leaves, which probably you do not meet with in the neighbour- 

 hood you explore, as you have not mentioned it in your notes. 

 This deserves a special place in the history of these insects, be- 

 cause it belongs to none of the seven classes into which you have 

 divided the larvae known to you. On the 25th July I went into 



* The larva had been observed by Herr Boie (Ent. Ztg., 1846, p. 292) on 

 Cormis slricta, but he did not rear it, and was not aware to what order it 

 belonged. 



