192 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



ends than the case of S. pined, with very noticeable, complete dorsal 

 keel and flat ventral surface, so that the lateral keels are conspicuous, 

 though blunt. The surface is clothed with fine, clear, dust-grey, 

 particles of sand and earth, sometimes also with particles of chalk 

 intermixed. At the anterior end coarser pieces are utilised, and one 

 finds here also scraps of insect remains. Hofmann notes the length 

 of the case as being 3-4 lines in length, that of the $ smaller than 

 that of the female, triangular in section, with a flat base and swollen 

 medially, narrowing to each side, and covered with sand and earth, 

 the colour depending upon the tint of the material with which it is 

 covered, many of the cases with loose particles of insects, &c, attached 

 to the angles of the anterior end where they sometimes form a distinct 

 collar, others are covered with such particles over most of the surface, 

 whilst others again are nearly smooth. Hofmann believes that the 

 material used for covering the case depends upon the environment, for 

 some larvas that he reared from eggs, and provided with sand, made 

 almost perfectly smooth cases. 



Larva. — Hofmann (who reared :;: the insect) describes the larva as 

 having a light reddish-brown head with darker mandibles and light 

 brown legs ; the prothorax and mesothorax with shiny brown plates 

 divided medially by a pale longitudinal line ; on the metathorax are 

 two small brown dorso-lateral spots. The remaining segments are 

 yellow with many small brown warts and solitary white hairs. The 

 anal plate is shiny brown. Bruand's description f does not agree with 

 this. He says " the larva is grey, with the head black and shining, 

 and with two corneous shields of a blackish-grey colour placed on the 

 superior part of the pro- and mesothorax. These shields have the 

 form of a long rectangle, they occupy all the upper parts of the 

 anterior segments and are only separated by the incisions. One 

 observes on the 3rd segment a small lateral dark grey spot, which 

 replaces the shield, and below the stigmatal line, a small blackish-grey 

 streak. The feet are blackish." As elsewhere noted (p. 175), we sus- 

 pect that Snellen van Vollenhoven's description, although referred to 

 S. triquetrella, really refers to 8. lichenella. 



Pupa. — No description of the pupa appears to be available. 

 Hofmann notes that it has " the head and dorsum dark brown, the 

 venter yellow-brown." 



Food-plants. — Dematium virescens and Chloridium viride (Fischer), 

 lichens on oak-palings and rocks (Bruand), lichens on tree-trunks 

 (Hofmann) . 



Parasites. — Hemiteles albipennis, Ktzb., H. gastrocoelus, Btzb., H. 

 leucomerus, Btzb., H. melanarius, Gr., bred by von Siebold ; Campoplex 

 difformis, Gr., Hemiteles tristator, Gr., bred by Hofmann. 



Habits and Habitat. — Like the rest of the true Solenobias, this 

 species reaches the imaginal stage in the early spring at Dresden, the 

 male flying freely, the female sitting on the case after emergence, and, 

 after copulation, laying its eggs therein, covering them with the hairs 

 from the anal tuft, the cases are to be found on fences and tree-trunks 

 around Dresden on the green wall-mould, the larva3 having craAvled up 

 after hybernation during the first sunny days of March (Fischer) ; the 



* Hofmann, who bred what he termed " sexual " and " parthenogenetic " S. 

 triquetrella, does not say to which of these forms the above description belongs, 

 f Stainton refers Bruand's triquetrella to inconspicuella. 



