224 [March, 



every indication of having but recently contained larvse. 0£ the two 

 larvae found last spring, one died from some unknown cause shortly 

 after it came into my possession, and the other was unfortunately the 

 victim of a parasite. I am therefore unable to state with certainty 

 how the larva pupates ; but there can be little doubt that it leaves the 

 shoot to spin a cocoon between moss, or debris, and the soil. 



M. Eagonot (vide Ent. Mo. Mag , vol. xxii, p. 52), under the title 

 of NepTiopteryx ahietella, S. V., describes both imago and larva of two 

 closely allied species attached to Scotch fir, viz., N. decuriella, Hb., = 

 ahietella (S. Y.), Zincken, and N. sylvestrella of Eatzeburg. The 

 latter species has not been noticed to occur in England ; but the de- 

 scription he gives of the larva of N. decuriella (ahietella) does not 

 agree with that of our insect. Assuming, therefore, M. Eagonot's 

 description to be correct, that of the present notice suggests the 

 probable existence of another or third species. 



King's Lynn, Norfolk : 



December 3lst, 1887- 



Note on Dioryctria decuriella and its allies. — In relj to your query respecting 

 a species of Dioryctria bred from a larva found feeding on Finns sylvestris by Mr. 

 Atmore, I beg to say that decuriella, Hb. {ahietella, S. Y.), feeds both on firs and pines ; 

 as mentioned in my " Eerision," the larva is reddish-brown and lives in the cones, 

 young shoots, and decayed wood of the ConifercB ; the absence of the reddish-brown 

 patch before the first line and, no doubt, the smaller size of Mr. Atmore's insect, proves 

 that it must be referred to decuriella, Hb. The life-history of the other species which 

 feeds on fir has been given at length by Duponchel (Ann. See. Ent. France, 1832, p. 

 300, pi. i), under the name oi decuriella, Hb. I have read again with care Ratzeburg's 

 descriptions and find they are very ambiguous. He seems to have felt that there 

 were two species under the name of ahietella, but he could not find sufficient 

 characters to separate them. His observations on the larvse prove that he had no 

 clear idea of the differences in colour and mode of living, for he states that the larva 

 of his sylvestrella is reddish-brown, closely resembling that of ahietella, and feeds in 

 the cones, but adding that, according to Fintelmann, some larvae are of a dirty pale 

 green, and that Fintelmann found the larvse feeding in exudations of resin on firs. 

 This being the case, I am now of opinion that it is better to adopt for the species 

 whose greenish larva feeds in the resin, or, at least, induces the resin to run by its 

 ravages in the trunks of firs, the name of splendidella, given by Herrich-Schiiffer ; 

 for this author has very well figured the insect (Tin., pi. 7, fig. 43), and in his 

 description, page 79, he separates splendidella from ahietella, giving splendidella as 

 a peculiar form of ahietella, S. V. The name of splendidella, Mann, was a manuscript 

 name, and applied, in reality, to pinguis, Hw. ; however, it is likely that Mann sent 

 Herrich-Schaffer, under this name, both the Dioryctria and JEuzophera, as both are 

 represented on plate 7 as splendidella (fig. 43 and 44), but the Dioryctria, having 

 first been described and figured, must bear the name of splendidella, of which it is 

 well worthy with its silvery-grej wings with black markings, varied with reddish- 

 brown, and its large size. The North American Pinipestis reniculella, Grote, and 

 P. ahietivorella, Grote, I consider only dark forms of decuriella, Hb., and, of course, 

 the generic name of Pinipestis, Grote, is simply synonymous with Dioryctria, Zi. — 

 E. L. Ragonot, 12, Quai de la Rapee, Paris : February Wth, 1888. 



