NEPTICULA ATRICOLLIS. 305 



seems precisely similar in the two species, but in the form of the 

 fascia I think I can see this distinction, that in N. atricollis the curve 

 or angulation of its inner edge takes place near the middle of the 

 wing, but in N. arcuata it does not occur till the fold is reached 

 (Stainton). 



Egg-laying. — The egg is deposited on the undersurface of a leaf of 

 hawthorn, wild apple, or pear. 



Mine. — The first part of the mine is extremely fine, runs along the 

 edge of a leaf, following the serrations, and is almost filled up with 

 brown excrement. The mine then becomes wider, and finally expands 

 into quite a large blotch, in which the excrement occupies only a 

 small area, the blotch assuming a peculiar brownish-green tinge in 

 hawthorn-leaves. Mines found by Wood in leaves of pear were rather 

 different from those found on apple and hawthorn, those found on pear 

 being typical of the " angulifasciella group," commencing in the body 

 of the leaf with a bunch of convolutions, followed by a short gallery, 

 and ending in a blotch. Wood notes that on apple and hawthorn the 

 mine is much like that of N. regiella, commencing with a long gallery 

 round the margin of the leaf, from which, as from a base, the blotch 

 springs. Occasionally, however, the mines on apple and hawthorn do 

 conform to type, when the egg happens to be deposited well away 

 from the edge. The position of the egg, therefore, seems to determine 

 the character of the mine ; when it is laid upon or near the edge the 

 larva appears to remain there, the bunch of convolutions being un- 

 ravelled, as it were, and spread out along the margin. 



Larva. — Length 2 lines. Pale greenish, with a dark green dorsal 

 vessel ; the 11th and 12th segments with a reddish tinge ; the head 

 and prothorax blackish-brown. There is a medio-ventral row of dark 

 spots (Stainton). The larvse of the autumn brood are supposed, by 

 Warren, to hybernate through the winter, and to spin their cocoons on 

 objects near their hybernacula in spring. Heinemann says that " the 

 larva is yellow, with the head and spot on prothorax blackish." 

 Nolcken queries the larva being "yellow," and describes it as " very 

 pale dirty greenish in colour, usually with dark head, which is 

 posteriorly black-brown. The intestinal canal is dark green, whilst 

 along the venter a series of almond-shaped (or lozenge) spots are 

 visible." Wood notes that the larva mines with the venter uppermost. 



Comparison of the larva and mine of N. atricollis with 

 those of its allies. — Of the larvae living on Crataegus oxyacantha, 

 probably only that of A r . ignobilella can be confounded with that of 

 N. atricollis, but this has a much paler head, and its mine has, at the 

 commencement, pale margins on either side of the slender frass-line, 

 whilst the frass completely fills up this part of the mine. The mine 

 of A r . parado.va, Frey, from its forming a large brown spot, appears easy 

 to separate from those of these species (Nolcken). 



Cocoon. — The cocoons average about 2*1 mm. in length and 

 1-25 mm. in width. Each is roughly oval in outline and shape, black 

 in colour, and covered over with a very dense coating of loose flossy 

 black-brown silk. There is no rim, the cocoon being very like that 

 of A r . rubivora, but much more woolly, and reminds one something of 

 an " eggar " cocoon in general form. The cocoons are spun up in 

 moss, some with grains of sand adherent to the outer coats. [De- 

 scribed July 7th, 1898, under a two-thirds lens, from cocoons sent by 



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