226 [March, 



the empty shells to form a portable shelter in which to-undergo its 

 transformation ; and, finally, that there are two broods in a year. 



Milliere (op. cit., Tome iii, p. i, pi. i) describes the larva, which, 

 he says, the naturalist, Hemmighofen, of Barcelona, was the first to 

 discover, and to whom is due the knowledge of the early stages of this 

 moth ; but it is to M. Peragallo we owe the exact perception of the 

 very interesting habits of the larva, which were previously unknown. 

 The figures show the moth, and larvae in situ on a branch, each with 

 its covering of the empty shells of a Lecanium, which bears some 

 resemblance to the carapace of a small tortoise. M. Milliere adds 

 that, although the larva has a very remarkable form, it is not unique 

 among the Noctuid<s, for he has figured in his " Iconographie," iii, 

 pi. 139, No. 4, the larva of Thalpochares communimacula, which has 

 the same abnormal form, and has, doubtless, the sam.e habits as that 

 of JE. scitula. He suggests that the two species should be separated 

 from Thalpochares, and form a distinct genus. The genus Thalpo- 

 chares was instituted by Lederer in the " Yerhandl. z.-b. Yerein," as 

 he states in his " Noctuinen Europa's," p. 185 (1857), in lieu of 

 Anthophila and Micra, both names being pre-occupied ; and he places 

 in his genus seven species, including communimacula, S.V. Of this 

 he says he had no particular knowledge, but that the larva lives in a 

 web, and is associated with a species of red Coccid, which is attached 

 to sloe, whitethorn, and peach-trees. Scitula, which he says is com- 

 mon in Germany, he left, with seven other species, in the genus 

 Erastria, Hiibn., saying nothing about the food of the larva, beyond 

 the general remark that, with two exceptions, all of them feed on 

 grasses, which is certainly incorrect, for that of E. venustula feeds on 

 the flowers of Fotentilla reptans and P. tormentilla, and brambles 

 (^Mubus) . 



The purpose to be served by the covering of empty shells on the 

 larvae is not suggested by either author, but there can be no doubt 

 that it effects a protection from enemies that would otherwise attack 

 the larvae and not the Coccids. We have not yet found in Britain 

 either the Erastria or the elegant, white, octagonal shells of Cero- 

 plastes, but we have on many woodland and fruit trees several other 

 species of Lecanidce, which, although doubtless they do some harm by 

 the abstraction of the sap, on which they live, yet do no appreciable 

 mischief, probably because in this climate they are not sufficiently 

 numerous, and Erastria or other predaceous Lepidopterous insect 

 would not thrive on the short allowance it would find. I ought, 

 perhaps, to except Lecanium rihis, A. Fitch, which clusters in great 



