1887.] 87 



neither seen, nor heard of any indications of larvss on it.* Possibly the occurrence 

 is to be put in the "sporadic" category, an unsatisfactory explanation, but it defines 

 certain conditions that exist in many insects, and which obtain especially amongst 

 Pyralides. 



In the " Manual " marjoram is given as the food-plant of P. piinicealis. Mr. 

 Stainton provides me with the information that Bouche bred it from species of 

 Mentha ; Bossier found the larva gregarious on Meiitha aquatica ; Schleich on the 

 same plant ; Biittner found it on Thymus ; and Harwood on Nepeta cataria {of. 

 Ent. Mo. Mag., xi, p. 66). Thus there is nothing very i-emarkable save its sudden 

 appearance in numbers in a small London garden where it had never before been 

 observed ; and I may venture the remark that the Entomology of my garden is 

 tolerably familiar to ipe, and that unusual occurrences ai'e at once noticed. This 

 year there have been several unusual, occurrences in addition to the above. — 

 E. McLachlan, Lewisham : August 11th, 1887. 



Larva in swollen knots on the stems and branches of Juniper. — Mr. Stainton, in 

 his notice of Lohesia permixtana (Ent. Mo. Mag., xxiv, p. 58), mentions (p. 60) that 

 Herr Hartmann had observed a larva in the swollen knots on the stems and branches 

 of Junipertis communis, which he regarded as that of L. permixtana. It seems to 

 me, however, extremely probable that the larva here referred to must have been that 

 of Qrapholitha opulentana, Milliere. 



I am not aware that the latter feeds on Jmiiperus communis, but I have fre- 

 quently bred it from swollen knots on Juniperus oxycedrus. 



The species is not uncommon at Cannes, and is described and figured in the 

 Annales de la Societe Entomologique de Belgique, vol. xx, p. 62, pi. 1, fig. 9 — 11 

 (1877). I found it before our late friend Milliere had published his description, and 

 until I showed it to him, I was not aware that he had already met with it. 



The figure in the plate does not give a true idea of the way in which the larva 

 feeds. It mines in and under the bark on the swollen stems, but does not make a 

 hollow in the centre of the stem itself ; the figure gives one too much the idea of an 

 empty gall. 



I am informed by Monsieur Constant that the larva actually feeds upon a small 

 fungus, with which these small gall-like swellings are almost invariably studded. 

 The moth might almost be said to bear a superficial resemblance to the female of 

 Lolesia permixtana. — Walsingham, Merton Hall, Thetford : August 2,nd, 1887. 



[Milliere mentions in a note that the galls on the stems of Juniperus oxycedrus 

 are probably the work of a Dipteron, he having repeatedly found Dipterous larvae 

 in these gall-like swellings before there was any symptom of the Lepidopterous larva. 

 Unfortunately he had not succeeded, at the time he wrote this note, in ascertaining 

 to what these Dipterous larvee turned. His notion was that the $ opulentana only 

 deposited her eggs on those branches which had been already attacked by the 

 Dipterous insect. Have we here a case of companion-larvse ? — H. T. S.] 



Notes on Tortrices, Sfc, in Kent in 1887- — Mr. Stainton's note in the last 

 number of the Magazine on Lolesia reliquana reminds me how overlooked some of 



•* The larvae are common now, August 22nd.— R. McL. 



