8354 



Insects. 



more finely scaled, more shining anterior wings, of ashy gray colour, 

 towards the tip rather of a bluish violet, and the cervical tuft is 

 whitish. If Frey received our N. pomella from Stainton as N. pyg- 

 maeella, this may easily have happened before N. pomella was dis- 

 tinguished from N. pygmEeella ; for that both species were previously 

 united under the latter name is manifest, since, in the ' Natural His- 

 tory,' p. 191, Stainton gives whitethorn and apple as the food of N. 

 pygmaeella, but in the ' Manual ' he assigns whitethorn to N. pygmae- 

 ella and apple to N. pomella. 



Of the remaining allied red-headed unicolorous Nepticulae, N. oxy- 

 acanthella, N. desperatella and N. Aucupariae are much smaller, and 

 have shorter antennae. N. oxyacanthella comes nearest in colour, but 

 the colour of the anterior wings is much brighter blue, especially 

 towards the apex ; the cilia are grayish black ; the very small, often 

 scarcely perceptible cervical tuft is whitish instead of yellow ; the 

 middle tibiae are only a little paler. N. desperatella has no pale cer- 

 vical tuft; the anterior wings are much smoother, with finer scales, as 

 though polished, coppery brown or brownish or greenish bronze, en- 

 tirely without violet or blue. In N. Aucupariae the large cervical tuft 

 is whitish ; the anterior wings are smoother and more finely scaled, 

 olivaceous, only with a violet gloss towards the tip. N. ruficapitella 

 and N. aeneella have also the cervical tuft more whitish, and the 

 ground colour of the anterior wings greener ; in the last-named spe- 

 cies the violet tint is wanting, or at least much fainter; in N. ruficapi- 

 tella it is much brighter at the apex of the wing. N. pomella may 

 have the greatest resemblance to N. rhamniella, H.-S. (Corresp. Blatt. 

 1860, p. 60), a species with which I am unacquainted. This has like- 

 wise the cervical tuft orange ; the anterior wings coarsely scaled, 

 grayish violet, with the scales projecting irregularly into the cilia ; 

 but the remark that the eye-caps are less whitish than the cervical 

 tuft, and that the anterior wings are shining, does not apply to our 

 species. 



The larva is ochreous-yellow, and mines in apple-leaves in October. 

 The mine expands like a blotch, and is recognized by its rusty yel- 

 low colour. The cocoon is oval, rather flat, and of a reddish brown 

 colour. 



N. pomella has been observed in Brunswick, Hanover, Frankfort- 

 on- the- Maine and Zurich, besides England. 



