THE NEPTICULIDES. 185 



palpus exceedingly well developed ; pupa in cocoon ; partly protrudes from cocoon 

 before emergence of imago. 



Larva. — Head small ; pro-thorax tumid; no true legs, but 9 (8?) pairs of 

 membranous prolegs without hooklets (some species without prolegs) ; dermis 

 transparent ; segmental incisions well defined ; mines in leaves, and lives on the 

 parenchyma. 



Ovum. — Large for size of moth ; flat and scale-like ; roundish-oval in outline ; 

 micropyle at one end. 



Group I. — Cilia of the anterior wings with no dark divisional line, 

 but cilia becoming gradually paler towards their tips. Anterior wings 

 with no distinct fascia. 



NEPTICULA ATRICAPITELLA, HaWOl'th. 



Synonymy. — Species: Atricapitella, Haw., "Lep. Brit.," pp. 585-586 (1828); 

 Stphs., " Illus.," iv., p. 209 (1835) ; Sta., " Sys. Cat.," p. 28 (1849) ; " Ins. Brit.," 

 p. 297(1854); " Nat. Hist. Tin.," i., p. 8 (1855); "Manual," ii., p. 431 (1859); 

 H.-Schaffer, " Sys. Bear.," v., p. 347, fig. 1086 (1855) ; Frey, " Die Tineen," etc., p. 

 370(1856); "Linn. Ent.," xi., p. 368 (1857) ; Heinemann, " Wein. Ent. Monats.," 

 pp. 241, 246, 256(1862) ; Hum. and Sta., " Zool.," xxi., pp. 8356-8357 (1863) ; Staud. 

 and Wocke, "Cat.," p. 335 (1871); Nolcken, "Lep. Fauna Estland," p. 754 

 (1871) ; Milliere, " Cat. Lep. Alp.-Mar.," p. 372 (1875) ; Hein. and Wocke, 

 "Schmett. Deutsch.," p. 731 (1877); Sand, " Cat. Lep. Auv.," p. 200 (1879); 

 Snellen, " Vlinders," etc , ii , p. 981 (1882); Peyer., "Cat. Lep. Als.," 2nd Ed., 

 p. 163 (1882); Curo, " Atti clella Soc. Mat. Modena," xvi. (1883); Sorhagen, 

 "Die Kleinschmett. Mark Brandenburg," p. 302 (1886); Meyrick, " Handbook," 

 etc., p. 714(1895). ? Samiatella, Zell., " Isis," 1839, p. 215; "Linn. Ent.," 

 hi., p 303 (teste Snellen). 



Original description. — " Tinea (The black-headed Pygmy) alis 

 auratis costa limboque postico purpurascentibus, capite atro. Expansio 

 alarum 2f lin. Praecedenti (violacella) simillima, sed dignoscitur 

 primo intuitu capite aterrimo nee ferrugineo, lamella alba ad antennas 

 instructo. Abe antics aurata3 margine postico late purpurascente. 

 Costa etiam certo situ late purpurascit. Habitat prope Londinum infre- 

 quens " (Haworth, Lepidoptera Britannica, pt. iv., pp. 585-586). 



Imago. — Head black. Anterior wings 5-6 mm. in expanse ; shTning 

 dark greenish-bronze in colour, the tip of the scales tinged with violet, 

 especially at apex, and along the costa ; cilia blue-black, apical half 

 from apex to anal angle pale greyish, at inner margin blackish-grey. 

 Posterior wings blackish-violet, slightly bronzy, cilia similarly 

 coloured, but with grey tips. 



Sexual dimorphism. — The blue-black cilia extend in the female 

 almost to the base of the wing without perceptibly decreasing in length, 

 and in set specimens they distinctly lie over the posterior wings. The 

 anal tuft is greyish in the male, and rusty-yellowish in the female 

 (Heinemann). 



Ovum. — The egg (or rather the empty shell is what one finds and 

 sees) is laid on the underside of an oak-leaf, just within the margin ; 

 in a bright light it looks like a globule of quicksilver. It is bright and 

 polished, and no marking or sculpturing can be detected and dis- 

 tinguished from the network afforded by the frass with which the 

 shell is packed. It is margined by a border of the gum with which 

 it is attached to the leaf. It is dome-shaped, but apparently rather 

 longer in one diameter than the other, viz., length -26mm., width 

 •23mm. ; the height appears to be -1mm., but this is, of course, rather 

 guesswork, as the lower surface is absent, and one assumes it is level 

 with the free border, but very probably it bulges in some irregularity 

 of the leaf (Chapman, in litt.). 



