222^ [March, 



causing an abundant exudation of resinous matter. I did not examine 

 this larva very carefully, so that from its superficial resemblance to 

 that of the Tortrix, both in point of colour and its mode of feeding, 

 it was placed in a jar with the pupae of B. turionana. At the end of 

 June I was pleased to find that a beautiful specimen of the Phycid 

 had emerged, doubtless resulting from the larva to which I have 

 briefly alluded. 



From this time I became desirous of renewing my acquaintance 

 with' the habits of N. dbietella in the larval state, and accordingly, on 

 the 23rd of April of the following year (1886), a visit was made to a 

 locality in which I had occasionally taken an imago. Here, after a 

 vigorous, though I confess for a long time unsuccessful, search, two 

 larvae of large size were found, feeding in central and terminal shoots. 

 After mucb time had been spent in a vain endeavour to find others, it 

 occurred to me that this larva might probably have more than one 

 method of feeding. Acting upon the impulse of the moment, the 

 search was resumed, this time I am glad to be able to say, with more 

 success. On some trees, dead shoots of the previous year's growth, 

 varying from two to four inches or more in length, were detected. A 

 subsequent examination of one of these plainly indicated that, at some 

 time or other, it must have been tenanted by a larva. Following up 

 the clue thus obtained, several of these withered stems or shoots were 

 collected, and in one of them a larva of N. ahietella was fortunately 

 discovered. Continuing the search I had the satisfaction of returning 

 home with a total of fifteen larvae. Of these I note that two only 

 were found feeding in the young sprouting shoots ; one, which must 

 have nearly attained its full growth, had betaken itself to a small 

 cone, then only in process of formation, and about the size of a small 

 hazel nut, and which, by the way, it had reduced to a mere shell, the 

 protruding f rass from a small hole near the base betraying its presence. 

 All the others, twelve in number, and varying in size from compara- 

 tively small to the nearly full-grown larva, were found burrowing in 

 shoots of the previous year, eating out the pith. It would seem, 

 therefore, that although the larvae may occasionally feed in tbe young 

 shoots or very young cones, they are far more generally to be found 

 in the one year old shoots. I obtained one larva from a tree not more 

 than three feet high, but the majority of them were obtained from 

 lateral branches of trees varying from ten to fifteen feet high, and 

 here I would observe that outlying or detached trees yield the best 

 results. The stem or shoot which contains or has contained a larva 

 may be known by its decayed or sickly appearance, the terminal shoots 



