NEPTICULA SEADLEYELLA. 331 



oppositis pone medium, costali anteriore ; capillis luteo-griseis. Exp. 

 al. 2 lin. Head and face luteous, mixed with grey. Palpi whitish. 

 Antennre grey, basal joint whitish. Anterior wings rather coarsely 

 scaled, dark grey, with two small whitish-silvery opposite spots beyond 

 the middle, tbat on the costa being nearer to the base ; between these 

 spots is a considerable breadth of the ground-colour ; cilia grey. 

 Posterior wings grey with paler cilia (Stainton, Insecta Britannica, 

 p. 300). 



Imago. — Head yellowish-grey. Anterior wings 4-6 mm., dark 

 grey ; two small whitish silvery opposite spots beyond the middle ; 

 cilia grey with whitish tips. Posterior wings grey, cilia paler. 



Egg-laying. — The egg is laid on the upper surface of a leaf of 

 Prunella vulgaris (Fletcher). 



Mine. — The young larva makes a long and very narrow gallery in 

 the blade of the leaf, often running halfway, or even all round the 

 edge of it, the frass forming a continuous dark central line. After a 

 while, the larva bores down the petiole of the leaf and up that of 

 another, sometimes the opposite one, sometimes one of those at the 

 next node. This leaf, usually buried among long herbage, becomes 

 of a dull purple colour, while the larva is tunnelling up its foot-stalk, 

 owing probably to the interference with its sap-supplies hastening 

 its ripening. Arrived at the blade of this leaf, the larva makes a 

 wide blotch-like mine, often moving a great part, or even the whole, 

 of the parenchyma, unless the leaf be a very large one, when the 

 mine takes the form of a broad zigzag gallery. Should the second 

 leaf be very small, a third, or even a fourth, leaf may be mined. The 

 frass forms a broad, broken, dark line in the middle of the mine 

 (Fletcher). 



Larva. — The full-fed larva is about two lines long ; head very 

 pale brown ; body bright yellow ; food showing through in the dorsal 

 region as a long, dark green blotch. 



Cocoon. — The cocoons examined (10) average about 2*1 mm. in 

 length, and 1*6 mm. in width. They vary considerably in shape, some 

 being almost circular in outline, others (spun up among moss) are 

 spindle-shaped and considerably pointed towards each end. The 

 normal shape appears to be somewhat pyriform, one end being much 

 wider than its nadir ; the broad end is somewhat flattened on its 

 margin, the narrow end rising somewhat gradually to the upper 

 convex surface of the cocoon. The colour is of a deep chocolate- 

 brown, and the tint agrees marvellously with that of a dead Prunella 

 leaf, on the upper surface of which the cocoon is apparently normally 

 spun. The cocoon is enveloped in a moderately thick coating of loose 

 flossy silk, of the same dark coloration as the central structure. [De- 

 scribed under a two-thirds lens, September 19th, 1898, from cocoons 

 sent by Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher.] Fletcher writes : " The cocoon is 

 dark brown, mussel- shaped, slightly keeled at the larger end, and rather 



Food-plant. — Prunella vulgaris, preferring the radical leaves. 



Time of appearance. — The insect is double-brooded, imagines 

 appearing in May (end) -June and the end of August, from larvae that 

 feed up in September (end) -October and July- August (beginning) 

 respectively. Tompkins records the imago on June 8th, 1855, at 

 Headley Lane ; Stainton, on June 23rd, 1856, in the same locality, 



