﻿92 [September, 



inconspicuella, I found a decided difference in form ; the oases of inconspicuella are 

 I think invariably three-sided, straight, and grey in colour, while those I took were 

 round, slightly curved, and generally green. 



When I first discovered them, I forwarded a supply to Mr. Stainton, who, 

 however, thought they would provo Dipterous, and informed me that he had 

 onco found a case of apparently the same species on a plum tree. 



Towards the end of June, however, moths began to appear (all apterous females), 

 something like, but easily separable from, females of inconspieuella, being much 

 yellower in colour, and with the ovipositor very much longer. 



I continued every season to breed the insect in large numbers with the hope 

 of discovering the male, but nothing appeared but females ; these would lay eggs 

 in great abundance, and the glass cylinders in which I kept them would be soon 

 swarming with the young larvge. 



I sent liberal supplies of cases to Mr. Doubleday, Mr. Stainton, Mr. Edleston, 

 and other of our leading entomologists, with the same result I believe in every 

 case, viz., nothing but females appearing. 



The late Mr. Weaver appears to have met with this or a similar species in 

 North Wales, as he says in a communication to the Zoologist of 1856, "Last 

 summer, when collecting in North Wales, I found several small cases on the rooks 

 at Conway that were entirely new to me ; they were covered with the lichen upon 

 which the larvse were feeding, the cases were round, and a little curved. These, 

 when bred, produced all females, bearing a very close resemblance to inconspieuella." 



It is, I believe, now generally understood among entomologists that there is 

 no doubt that the economy of the genus Solenobia and others resembles in some 

 measure that of Aphis, viz., a series of generations without sexual intercourse, the 

 great point of difference being that the Aphides, being viviparous, produce their 

 young at once ; while with the Solenobia, eggs are laid, and the usual course of larva, 

 pupa, and imago appears. 



It has often puzzled me as to how the different species of Solenobia become 

 distributed 5 only this day I discovered a case on a small tree not thicker than 

 my wrist, and I know of several young trees growing quite detached from others 

 upon which tho cases abound. 



I do not believe that the larva ever travels many inches from the spot upon 

 which the eggs are laid, and the females appear quite incapable of locomotion. 



Altogether the species has been a problem to me ever since I began to take 

 some interest in it, but I am glad to say I have at last in some measure been 

 enabled to understand a little more of its habits and economy than I used to do. 



On some pear trees here I have always been able to get a supply of cases 

 when wanted ; and, upon an examination of these trees the other day by myself and 

 my friend Mr. A. E. Hudd, we discovered that a large number of the cases were 

 empty, the moths having emerged. A search for the imago was rewarded by the 

 discovery of a couple of little moths we did not recognise, and therefore hoped 

 would prove male Solenobia pomoncB ; we, however, much to our chagrin, failed to 

 capture either. 



Next morning I renewed the search, and captured six fine specimens. I then 

 collected a lot of the cases in a glass, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing a moth 

 emerge. Altogether, I have bred about two dozen specimens, eight of which are 

 apterous females, but the rest all winged ; but judge of my utter astoi: "aliment when, 



