182 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



bringing the cocoons into a warm room. Owing to the fact that their 

 larvas may be collected in late autumn, when other entomological 

 field-work is almost over, and that they can be then forced to emerge 

 in the winter at will, many entomologists have occupied themselves 

 with these charming little atoms, for they can set them uninterruptedly 

 throughout the winter, when there are practically no other insects to 

 set. Some few species, however, are often abundant enough in the 

 imago state, e.g., X. mbbimaculella, N. quinquella, etc., resting in the 

 crannies of oak trunks. X. intimella is to be obtained by sweeping 

 the ends of the sallow branches ; X. pygmaeella flies freely from 

 5-6 a.m., and N. gratiosella on a sunny afternoon. The species, 

 however, are, as a rule, much better bred. 



Frey says that although 46 species of the genus Nepticula, and 2 of 

 Trifurcula occurred in Switzerland in 1858, only 2 species of the 

 former genus, and 1 of the latter, occur in the Alps from 5,000-7,000 ft. 

 altitude. The two Xeptiadae were X. septembrella, found on one of the 

 Glarus Alps, in 1857, at an elevation of 5,400 ft., and the blotch 

 mine of a species on mountain-ash {Pyrus aucuparia), which also occurs 

 at Zurich. Bremi-Wolff found, years before, a species of Trifurcula 

 abundantly on the Righi [Ent. Ann., 1858, p. 146). Of the distri- 

 bution of the Nepticulid species at considerable altitudes, Heinemann 

 observes that on the Upper Harz, at 2,800 feet above the sea, he found, 

 in June, mines of X. iceaveri on Vaccinium vitis-idaea, and in July 

 he found mines of an unknown species on Pyrus aucuparia (the 

 imagines, which had red heads, and a silvery fascia across the fore- 

 wings, died in the pupa-case, and so failed to emerge). In the 

 same place he met with some specimens of a third species amongst 

 Vaccinium myrtillus and V. uliginosum, but only caught one specimen, 

 in bad condition. This proved not to be X. myrtillella, but bore con- 

 siderable resemblance to X. lapponica. 



Family : nepticulid^e. 



In spite of the great amount of information that has accumulated 

 relating to the life-histories of these moths, and the number of students 

 who have from time to time been engaged in unravelling their habits, 

 little enough is known of many essential points in their structure. 

 Even the variation of the neuration indicated by Heinemann has 

 never yet been worked out by those versed in this particular branch 

 of study, and no grouping on the lines indicated has yet, we believe, 

 been attempted. The result is, that the superfamily at present con- 

 tains only one recognised family, and the latter three genera, all so 

 nearly allied as to be united into a single tribe. True, Staudinger and 

 Wocke include [Catalog, etc. (1871), p. 335] the genus Opostega in 

 this family, but of this remarkable genus that exhibits the extreme 

 of neurational specialisation, inasmuch as there are only three un- 

 branched nervures to the fore-wings, so little is known that it is 

 difficult to say with any precision to what superfamily it does belong. 

 The only three genera represented certainly in the Palaearctic area are 

 Xeptiada, Trifurcula and Scoliaida (Bohemannia). 



The number of Palaearctic species enumerated in Staudinger and 

 Wocke 's Catalog, etc. (1871), pp. 335-340, is as follows: — Xepticida, 

 111 species; Trifurcula, 5 species; Scoliaida, 1 species. This list 

 was almost entirely confined to species found in Britain, Germany and 



