250 [November, 



browner colour, and where these have been more worn in the middle of the wings 

 than at the margins, they appear to have been, at times, mistaken for E. margine- 

 nigrella, Braund. The opportunity of examining a living female occurred rather 

 unexpectedly. Mr. F. G. Whittle while searching, on my behalf, at Southend, met 

 with three of the curious cases of this species, from one of which, most fortunately, 

 a female emerged, excluding herself at once from the case. She was about half an 

 inch long, stout, and very like a maggot, reddish-yellow, redder on the back, especially 

 at the segmental divisions ; head very small and tucked down, a mere brownish 

 mask, browner where the mouth should be ; no mouth organs, antennae, wings nor 

 scales ; legs just indicated by minute jointed yellow glassy points, without claws — 

 mere papillae, apparently without motion or functions ; seemingly without dorsal 

 shields; pretty even in thickness to about the llth segment, which, with the 

 following, tapers off rapidly, the 13th being small, bluntly terminated, except a 

 small point or ovipositor case projecting from its centre. This portion of the body 

 has a vermicular motion, otherwise the creature seems quite inert. ' Preserved 

 specimens which have laid their eggs shrink very short and small, and become curious 

 little squared objects, ribbed closely at the insertions of the segments. Bruand 

 describes the larva as dirty white, inclining to purplish, with two clearly indicated 

 black-brown stripes on each side, a very small spot of the same colour between the 

 two upper ones, and a rather irregular line above the stigmata ; head and legs 

 shining blackish. Feeding on grasses. Inhabiting a case of silk covered with short 

 lengths of slender dried grass laid most carefully parallel lengthwise, not spreading, 

 but of equal thickness at each end ; nearly cylindrical, but in the smallest degree 

 swollen in the middle. Usually two or three of the bits of grass are longer than 

 the rest, and project beyond the ends of the case. 



Pupa also in the case ; that of the female appearing as though Dipterous ; that 

 of the male of the ordinary moth form, splitting down outside the wing cases on 

 emergence, so as to throw off all the limb cases in an unbroken piece. The case is 

 occasionally fixed for pupation to a post or other suitable object near the ground, 

 but usually to a grass stem, and the larva keeps so near to the ground as to be 

 diiScult to find. The male moths are active enough, at times, in the sunshine, 

 though they generally keep down among the grass a good deal. Mr. Sydney Webb 

 tells me that he has often observed them to assemble round probably newly-emerged 

 females. He says, " I have frequently seen perhaps a dozen fluttering about and 

 settling in a spot which indicated the presence of a female. They seem to arrive 

 quite suddenly from all directions within a limited area, and almost every blade of 

 grass within a square yard will have its occupant." 



E. EETICELLA, Newman. — This beautiful little species appears to be almost 

 unknown outside a very limited portion of our southern and south-eastern coast. 

 There is only one record of it abroad, so far as I know.* It frequents the salt marshes 

 of the Kent, Essex, Sussex and Hants coast, the male flitting on a still sunny afternoon 

 from blade to blade of grass, and closely resembling the pretty little Dipterous 

 insects, with broad hairy wings, called Psychoda. Its markings are merely grey 

 nervures and cross bars on a white ground, but these are very delicate. The grey 



* Dr. Heylaerts recorded it a few years ago from Breda in Holland. 



