NEPTICULA PYRI. 201 



minusculella. If the mines are typical no difficulty arises, but 

 occasionally the convolutions in N. pyri, which always show a tendency 

 to keep close together, will so run into each other as almost to form a 

 blotch, and at the same time the coiling of the frass gets rather 

 slovenly. On the other hand, when N. minusculella happens to be in 

 an over-thick leaf, and in consequence contracts to some extent the 

 width of its gallery, signs of imperfect coiling may show themselves, 

 probably an ancestral habit, indicating that the insect has only 

 recently parted company from the species that use narrow galleries, 

 and the coil arrangement. Under these circumstances, each mine 

 encroaches somewhat on the character of the other, and their dis- 

 tinction becomes not as clear as could be wished. It is, therefore, 

 rather tantalising that we should be in sight, though not quite in 

 possession of, a very simple character, that would solve the matter at 

 once. I mean the position of the egg ; for did N. pyri always lay on 

 the upperside of the leaf, as N. minusculella does on the underside, 

 nothing more would be wanted, but since it does not do so, it is only 

 in a limited number of cases, that is, where the egg is found above, 

 that any conclusion from its position can be safely drawn (Wood). 



Cocoon. — The cocoon examined measures 22 mm. in length, and 

 1-9 mm. at its widest part. It is dark red- brown in colour, with a purplish 

 hue, and a number of darker reticulations. It is of the shape that has been 

 described as something like a "mussel-shell " (but which appears in this 

 instance more of the shape of a plum-stone), somewhat flattened at the 

 broader end, yet without forming a distinct flange or rim. The narrow end 

 is much thicker, and more rounded, whilst along this and one of the long 

 sides the dome-shaped top rises from the edge without the flattening 

 of the two opposite sides. The cocoon examined has no flossy silk 

 hanging about it, except along the outer rim, where some fibres show 

 that it has been attached by the outer edge. [Described under a 

 two-thirds lens on June 20th, 1898, from a cocoon sent by Dr. Wood.] 

 Wood notes the cocoon as being " very like that of N. oxyacanthella, 

 but smaller and darker. It is also placed in similar situations." 



Food- plant. — Pyrus communis. 



Tjme of appearance. — The species is double-brooded, the imagines 

 first appearing at the end of May and commencement of June, and 

 afterwards in August, from larvae found feeding in September-October 

 and July respectively. Mines collected at the end of September, 1888, 

 produced imagines early in June, 1889 (Wood). Frey writes: — 

 " Herr Glitz in Hannover, bekanntlich einer unserer ausgezeicjmetsten 

 Forscher,uberschicktemirvor einigen Jahren mehrereExemplare dieser 

 neuen, von Birnbaumen erzogenen Art. Ich fand dann bei Zurich in 

 der ersten Octoberhalfte zahlreich an wildern Birnen unter jiingeren 

 Nadelbaumen die der von N. minusculella gleichende Mine mit einem 

 ganz ahnlichen dunkelgrtinen Raupchen und erzog einige den Glitz - 

 'schen identische Exemplare. Ob die Generation eine doppelte ist 

 vermag ich noch nicht anzugeben " (Stett. Ent. Zeit., 1871, pp. 

 123-124). 



Localities. — Hereford : Tarrington, where the species is limited to those 

 orchards which are situated on the limestone, or on the brashy cornstones of the 

 Old lied Sandstone (Wood). 



Distribution. — France : Nohaut (Sand). Germany : Very common 

 at Konigsthor, Alt Damrn, Friedland (Hering), Breslau, Hanover 

 (Sorhagen), Grunstadt (Eppelsheim). 



