244 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



Imago.— Head black. Anterior wings 4-5 mm. ; shiny, purplish- 

 coppery in tint, covered with brassy scales at the base ; straight pale 

 golden fascia beyond the middle of the wing ; apex tinged with violet ; 

 cilia dark grey. Posterior wings and cilia also dark grey. 



Comparison of N. splendidissimella with N. gei and N. aurella. 

 — I would suggest that N. splendidissimella may be known from its 

 allies by the brassy base to the forewings, as well as by the colour of the 

 head ; N. aurella, by the head being of the same colour in both sexes ; • 

 N. gei, by the head being darker in the female than in the male ; 

 possibly, too, the latter has narrower fore-wings than N. aurella 

 (Fletcher). 



Egg-laying. — The egg appears to be laid on the under-surface of a 

 leaf, well away from the margin, but not necessarily near a rib. The 

 egg is oval in outline, the shell perfectly transparent, and packed 

 almost full of black frass. 



Mine.- — The first part of the mine (about one-half of an inch in 

 length) is little twisted, exceedingly fine, and practically invisible to 

 the naked eye ; in this the frass forms a broken central thread, with a 

 distinct margin on either side. The second part of the mine widens 

 considerably at its commencement (probably after a larval moult), and 

 continues to do so gradually until its termination ; it is about one inch 

 long, and rather more tortuous than the first part. In this part of the 

 mine, also, the frass is spread more than in the first part, but is still broken , 

 and there is a much wider margin on either side. The third part of 

 the mine is simply an extension of the second part, usually about three 

 quarters of an inch long, and gradually widening, until, at its ter- 

 mination, it ends in a largish blotch, about 7 mm. by 5 mm. In the 

 third part of the mine the frass is again more collected centrally, still, 

 however, forming a broken line. In the final blotch it is arranged 

 around the lower margin, the remaining area being free. The 

 boundaries of the mine are sometimes much governed by the veins 

 of the leaf, the mines often remaining for a considerable distance quite 

 straight by the side of one. The larva escapes from the leaf by an 

 aperture made in the lower epidermis. The foregoing description was 

 made from mines in leaves of Rubus chamaemorus, from Eannoch. 

 Others, in leaves of Rubus ? sp., from Mablethorpe, are very con- 

 spicuous, each usually commencing on or near the margin of the 

 leaf, and being much influenced in its direction by the ribs of the leaf, the 

 frass much broken into granules in the second and third parts of the 

 mine, and the margin of the mine marked by a distinct change in the 

 chlorophyll, which becomes red in contact with the mine ; tbe egg is, 

 however, still laid upon the undersurface of a leaf. [We are indebted 

 to Mr. Fletcher for the mines described.] Frey writes : " Die Mine 

 ist sehr lang und stark geschlangelt. Sie beginnt iiberaus fein mit 

 ganz schlanker Kothlinie, so dass die Bander frei bleiben, erweitert 

 sich dann betrachtlicher, eine einfache feine Kothreihe in der Mitte 

 fuhrend. Ungewohnlich breit erscheint sie spater, nachdem die 

 Eaupe sie verlassen hat, an dem Blatt der Brombeere als ganz weisser 

 Gang. Ich habe sie noch Anfangs November einzeln bewohnt 

 gefunden " (Die Tineen, etc., p. 394). Threlfall notes it as "a more 

 slender and tortuous mine than that of N. aurella." Nolcken writes : 

 " The mines from which I breed N. splendidissimella (named by 

 Stainton, etc.), are different from that in bramble-leaves, as described 



