322 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



narrow gallery, making very small convolutions, and with the dark 

 brown frass forming a broad, conspicuous, dense stripe almost filling 

 it. The mine is on that account sure to attract attention (Frey),. One 

 of six mines examined (from Mr. Fletcher), commences at the midrib, 

 has a straight and comparatively broad beginning, filled with black frass, 

 then makes two small sharply bent curves, in which the frass is central 

 and the margins pale, the gallery gradually expanding into an oval 

 blotch, stretching for 18 mm. along the margin of the leaf, and, with the 

 frass, forming a central line. Another commences on a lateral vein, 

 by the side of which it runs a short distance, turns back sharply on 

 itself almost to its point of origin, then returns again, zigzags over a 

 lateral vein, and at last widens similarly to the last. Four others 

 form irregularly oval blotches about 12 mm. x 6 mm., the frass 

 collected near the base in a somewhat irregular heap, due to the early 

 portions of the mine being bent back closely on themselves so that the 

 parenchyma between is all eaten ; two of these commence on the outer 

 margin, and are directed towards the midrib, the other two commence 

 near the midrib, and extend toward the outer margin. 



Larva. — Frey describes the larva as " bright yellow." 



Cocoon. — The cocoons (8) examined average about 2-75 mm. in 

 length, and 1-25 mm. in width, forming roughly a long oval in out- 

 line, of which one end is broader than the other, the broad end being 

 distinctly thinner than any other portion of the cocoon. There is no 

 trace of a rim (except round the front edge of the thinner end) ; the 

 arched portion rises abruptly from the edge of the cocoon on the other 

 three sides, being very thick at the narrower end. The cocoon is very 

 dark brown in colour, shiny, and thickly covered with loose flossy 

 silk, which appears rather paler than the body of the cocoon. The 

 pupa-case protrudes from the wider end, is colourless and transparent. 

 [Described July 20th, 1898, under a two-thirds lens, from cocoons 

 sent by Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher'.] The following note by Warren 

 probably refers to this species. He writes : "In the month of July, 

 1883, while examining the leaves of Sali.v alba, I noticed at the 

 extreme tip of a leaf a brown Nepticula cocoon, and lower down, in 

 the same leaf, the empty mine. On further search I discovered 20 or 

 30 such cocoons, all but one placed at the tip of a leaf, not always 

 the same leaf as that in which the larva had fed up, but occasionally 

 on an adjacent one. The sole exception had spun up on a midrib close 

 to the leafstalk " (E. M. M., xx., p. 187). 



Food-plants. — Salix alba. Salix viminalis (Frey). 



Time of appearance. — The species is double-brooded according to 

 Frey, occurring in May and July, from larvae found feeding in June 

 and August-September respectively. Edleston records having found 

 larvaa of this species near Manchester, in osiers, in 1856. Reuter found 

 imagines on May 13th, 1876, in the I. of Aland. 



Localities. — ? Cambridge : Cambridge (Warren). ? Hereford : Tarrington 

 (Wood). Lancashire : nr. Manchester (Edleston). Sussex: Abbott's Wood, 

 Adur and Arun valleys (Fletcher). 



Distribution. — Netherlands : Rotterdam, and many other places 

 in North and South Holland, Arnhem, Gelderland (Snellen). Russia : 

 I. of Aland (Reuter). Switzerland : Zurich (Frey), Turicum 

 (Wocke). 



