Insects. 3953 



In repose, the wings are nearly flat, being but slightly elevated 

 where they meet over the back. The anterior wings are short in com- 

 parison with their breadth. The antennas are not nearly half so long 

 as the anterior wings. The more delicate characters not easily visi- 

 ble to the naked eye, are the rough head and face, and the enlarged 

 basal joint (eye-cap) of the antennae. To conclude, the answer to the 

 question, "What is a Nepticula?" would be as follows: — A Nepticula 

 is a very small moth, which in repose keeps its wings flat (its ante- 

 rior wings being short in proportion to their breadth), whicli has 

 remarkably short antennae, and runs with extraordinary agility. 



2. What are the habitats of Nepticula? These small insects have 

 attacked a great variety of plants, and from the lordly oak of the fo- 

 rest to the lowly Hypericum on some sandy bank, there are probably 

 few plants of w r hich they are not consumers. But at present, in 

 speaking of their habitats, I wish to confine myself to the localities 

 frequented by them as perfect insects. In the first place, they fre- 

 quently swarm on palings, and here they are caught with comparative 

 ease. In the second place, they are at times numerous on the trunks 

 of trees ; but here, to see is not to catch. You examine the rugged 

 trunk of an oak, and see none : look again, — look in that crevice, — do 

 you not see a black speck between two white ones ? — that black speck 

 is the head of N. atricapitella, the two white specks are the eye-caps at 

 the base of his antennae. Now, to catch him, you must dislodge him 

 from that convenient nook ; poke him gently with a blade of grass. 

 Ah ! he has jumped away. This is often the case in attempting to 

 catch Nepticulae on the trunks of trees. In the third place, many spe- 

 cies may often be beaten out of the plants on which they feed. Thus, 

 N. subbimaculella from the oak, and Mr. Sircom used to obtain N. 

 intimella from the sallows by sweeping the ends of the branches. In 

 the fourth place, they may sometimes be found flying freely, of their 

 own accord : it was thus that I found N. pygmaeella had a penchant 

 for early rising, and was generally on the wing from 5 to 6 a.m. N. 

 gratiosella sometimes flies freely on a sunny afternoon. 



3. Where do the Larva of the Nepticula feed? They feed on the 

 parenchyma of leaves, not, however, distorting the shape of the leaf, 

 as the Lithocolletides do, — the leaf remains flat, only the mined place 

 becomes discoloured. The discoloration is, at first, hardly percepti- 

 ble, but becomes more evident in the process of time, until, at the 

 expiration of several months, it is sufficiently conspicuous to strike the 



XI. 2 H 



