THE 



ENTOMOLOGIST'S 

 MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



SECOND SERIES-VOL. I. 



[VOLUME XXVI.] 



MICROPTERYX LARV^. 

 BT JOHN H. WOOD, M.B. 



Nearly tliii-ty years ago, in the "Annual" for 1862, there were pub- 

 lished some excellent notes on the natural history of the Micropteryges, 

 in which several of the species were more or less fully and accurately 

 described. Tet the very excellence of the beginning then made 

 seems to have acted as a deterrent, and sent observers into fresher 

 fields, so that little if anything has since been added to our knowledge 

 ■^ of them, and it has become quite time that a further chapter in their 

 '* history should be written. 



i\ My own observations extend to just half-a-dozen species ; but 



3 before describing them individually, I will, to save needless repetition, 



S-say something of the general characteristics and habits of a Micro- 



"^pteryx larva. I may premise that they are most easy things to study, 



for, by removing all but the mined leaf from the spray, the latter may 



^ be kept in water fresh to the last, and so the whole larval history from 



^ beginning to end be accurately watched. All the species hereafter 



mentioned, with the exception of purpurella, lay their eggs singly ; 



yet, like Mr. Douglas {op. cit., p. 126), I have failed to find any trace 



of the egg itself, though I have carefully sought for it over and over 



A 

 AT?T. 1890. 



