6146 



Insects 



it. The ej»:g, which is ribhed and at firsl pink, but changes after a few days to a slate- 

 colour, is laid in the autumn, on the buds and small shoots of the beech and maple. 

 It hatches about the 20th of April, and first attacks the opening bud, in which it buries 

 itself. The larva is naked, of a reddish brown, with a narrow white dorsal line, and 

 two narrow white spiracular lines: head, six front legs, and spiracles black. After 

 feeding on the opening bud, it then unites two leaves together and feeds and moults 

 between ihem. As it attaches the leaves pretty firmly together, it seems of little use 

 beating for it, but it may be found by raising the branch and holding it against the 

 light, when it is easily observed between the leaves. — Rev. B. H. Birks; StonoVy 

 Henley-on-Thames^ May 22, 1858. — Id. 



Capture of Camptogramma gemmata and Jiuviata at light, near London. — On the 

 evening of the 5th of June, I took both these species at gas lamps in this neighbour- 

 hood, two specimens of the former and one of the latter. I have presented one of the 

 gemmata to the cabinet of the Entomological Club. — John Henry Tilly ; 3, Bernard 

 Street, RegenCs Park, June 15, 1858. 



Elachista Trapeziella : its Food and Transformations. — Larva deep pink (in some 

 individuals much darker than others, and this may be a sexual difference), with a 

 yellowish line down the back and sides. Mandibles pitchy black. Corselet with a 

 pitchy patch, divided by the dorsal line, in each half of which is a blackish spot. It 

 feeds on Luzula, and the egg is apparently laid at the base of the leaf, as the larva 

 enters from thence mining upwards and making a track so fine as to be almost imper- 

 ceptible without the aid of a magnifying glass. After it has thus worked for a con- 

 siderable distance it suddenly makes a broader mine and returns downwards parallel 

 to the first track, when its operations may now be detected. The broad mine is of a 

 dirty grayish colour, and seldom exceeds a sixteenth of an inch in width. Here I 

 may add, that probably those who were not fortunate enough to detect it, searched on 

 the fresh leaves. From what has come under my own notice it is only to be met with 

 on those leaves which have assumed a purplish tinge. No doubt the egg is deposited 

 on the young leaf, but before this is hatched, age, and other causes too sometimes, 

 act upon it as above. Decidedly the most difficult larva to find in the whole 

 Elachista group. When about to change to a pupa it quits the mine, and, retiring 

 to a convenient place, it then makes a slight spinning, to which it attaches itself, as 

 well as by a few threads thrown across its back. The pupa at first, and until near the 

 perfection of the imago, retains a good deal of the colour of the larva. It is rather 

 narrow, and with the dorsal ridge acute and pale. In all my examples the pupa 

 was suspended head downwards. This is a fine species resembling none of the others 

 in the position of its markings except E. cinereo-punctella ; and from this it is at once 

 separated by the deeper colour of the wings and the short silvery white streak running 

 along the fold at the base of the wing. Mr. Stainton's description in the ' fnsecta 

 Britannica,' p. 254, is exceedingly good. After emerging from the chrysalis, and 

 when the wings have been developed, they are suddenly raised to an angle forking 

 about 90 degrees with the body, and with their superior surfaces turned to each other 

 so as to be almost touching it, thus stand until they are fit for use. The larvas are 

 nearly all full grown by the end of April, and the perfect insect appears at the end of 

 May or beginning of June. — John Scott, Southjield Villas, Middlesbro-on-Tees, 

 June 14, 1858. 



Scolytus supposed to attack only unhealthy Trees : Cossus ligniperda does in- 

 fest the Elm. — In the last number of the 'Zoologist,' I observe a paper, 



