Insects. 5295 



seen ; they were marked all over, and covered with a gum to protect them from harm. 

 What a beautiful provision of Nature ! to see the parent protecting what was to be 

 her future progeny from danger. Not knowing that this larva hybernated, I was 

 thinking how I might take care of the eggs until spring, but, on looking into the box 

 about eight days afterwards, I was surprised to see the young larvae crawling about 

 very rapidly : I collected as many as I could, and put them on an oak twig placed 

 in a small phial of water, when they commenced to feed : they moulted the first time 

 in about four days, the second time in ten days more, the third time in about three 

 weeks afterwards, which was about the end of September; and, which is most 

 remarkable, the larva, which is a beautiful green, turned to a brown, the colour 

 of the bark of the trees, as if Nature ordained that the beautiful green would not suit 

 the cold biting blasts of wiuter, but put on that colour to be in keeping with the 

 season, and then, when the trees began to bud and flower, the beautiful green 

 returned again. They made no winter nest, as some of the hyberuating species do, 

 but spun a strong kind of ladder or stage, where they stuck on, holding by their 

 feet: after moulting the third time they ceased to eat, and continued in that state 

 till the month of February, when I was very much surprised and disappointed by 

 seeing them fall off one after the other until they were all dead. — James McLaren ; 

 Worley Barracks, Brentiuood, Essex, September 30, 1856. 



Descriptions of two British Tineada new to Science. — A new species of the 

 genus Gracilaria was captured in a yew-wood, at Godeth, near Conway, North Wales, 

 September 3rd, 1856, by myself and Mr. T. Hague. 



Gracilaria Haighii. 

 Expansion of wings from 3 to 4 lines; face pale; head yellowish; antennae dark; 

 thorax yellowish red ; body dark; base of wing yellowish red, shaded off with dark 

 grayish brown until the red is almost absorbed at the apex ; cilia very dark. Under 

 wings dark brown ; cilia the same colour. When alive, and sometimes after death, 

 the insect has a beautiful peach-like bloom upon it. 



The Tinea described below seems to have bred freely amongst rubbish-sweepings in 

 warehouses at Liverpool : — 



Tinea nigrifoldella. 



Expansion of wings, £, 5 to 7 lines; head and face bullish gray, sometimes dark 

 brownish gray ; antenna? dark, very slender, generally as long as the under wings 

 when expanded ; thorax and abdomen huffish gray, lighter than the head and glossy ; 

 legs buff. Upper wings huffish gray, suffused with darker atoms, a distinct dark 

 streak near the lower margin, then a long dark streak in the fold ; above this, slightly 

 outwards, is a small dark spot, then another small streak, after which there is another 

 spot or streak; in some specimens between these dark marks the wing appears lighter 

 by contrast ; the outer margin is streaky, especially at the apex of the wing, sometimes 

 these streaks are continued round, then there are three or four fine streaks on the 

 outer edge of the costa. The inner margin is buff, broken by the darker base mark 

 and by the dark fold streak ; cilia grayish drab ; under wings gray ; cilia grayish 

 drab. 



$ expands from 7 to 9 lines ; eggs oval, white. 



The general appearance of the insect is that of a Plutella, especially when alive: 

 it sits close, and has the cilia well up. It is one our largest Tineae. 



