6214 



Insects. 



a wood about two miles from Barnstaple, we observed B. lancealis in profusion. The 

 path in question has a bank on either side, covered with wood, flowers and vegetation, 

 and among the tall grass and flowers skirting the bottoms of these banks, B. lancealis 

 kept house in goodly numbers. Like other pearls, B. lancealis is easily disturbed, and 

 when on wing flies so slow as to be most easily netted. From the first week in June 

 until the end of that month, this species continues out, and directly it is over it is suc- 

 ceeded by another little pearl {Hypenodes albistrigalis), which haunts the same path, 

 and is to be disturbed from the same long grass which formed ihe lurking-place of B. 

 lancealis. This little species is also abundant. Had we been inclined we might have 

 pinned some hundreds of B. lancealis, but we contented ourselves with netting about 

 fifty, to supply our correspondents, and to leave us a few duplicates for exchange. In 

 this same path Erastria furcula was very abundant this season. — Murray A, Mathews ; 

 Raleigh House, near Barnstaple, 



Larva of Cliilo gigantellus. — This larva feeds in the stems of the reed. In order 

 to move from one reed-stem to another, which when the plants are growing in waier 

 would seem a difficult proceeding, it bites off" a piece of stem about its own length, 

 spins it together at each end, and becomes for the time a case-bearer, till floating on 

 the water it comes to another reed-stem, up which it crawls, fastens its canoe to it by 

 one end, often perpendicularly, and bores into the interior. This account of its habits 

 is given by Herr Morilz in Treitschke's work : the same observer also mentions that 

 Chilo forficellus, which feeds in the stems of Poa aquatica, likewise makes a tubular 

 case with a view to locomotion. I believe these case-bearing larvae of the genus Chilo 

 are occasionally mistaken for larvae of the genus Coleophora. — H, T, Stainton ; 

 July 10, 1858. — From the ^Intelligencer' 



Coleophora Leucapennella, — Herr Miihlig has been so kind as to forward me some 

 larvae of this insect. They feed inside ihe capsules of Silene nutans (do any entomo- 

 logists ever come across that plant in this country ?) and when the capsule has been 

 emptied of the seeds, the larva wishing to walk to another capsule, and not caring to 

 be at the trouble of making a case, carries ofi" the capsule bodily cochlearum 

 instar, and bores into another capsule, till it has obtained as much food as it requires. 

 Stranger still, the body of the larva having the capsule to occupy, swells out to most 

 grotesque dimensions. — Id, 



Xysmatodoma argentimaculella (Tinea argentimaculella, Stainton s Insec. Brit,p.36), 

 — From the middle to the end of J uly t met with this brilliant species, and also bred 

 it from cases on lichen growing on an old wall, nearly covered with herbage, at Bol- 

 lingtou, near here: the habit and general appearance of the moths so resemble Mela- 

 nella, which I have olten bred, that they gave me the clew as to their whereabouts, 

 or I might have been puzzled for years where they came from ; the cases are exceed- 

 ingly difiicult to see, being precisely the same colour as ihe lichen they feed upon. — 

 M. S, Edleston ; Bowdon, Cheshire^ August 2^ 1858. 



Captures near Bowdon. — During the present month I have captured the following 

 species: — Nemeophila Plantaginis, Anaitis imbutaria, Ccenonympha Davus, Acidalia 

 inornaria, A. nitidaria, A. obsoletaria, Hyria auroraria, Pyralis glaucinalis, Nephop- 

 teryx abietella, Cryptoblabes bistriga, Amphysa Gerningiana, Tortrix viburnana, 

 Sericoris decrepitana, Retinia Buuliana, B. pinicolana, R. pinivorana, Stigmonota 

 couifcrana, Crambus falsellus, Macaria lituraria. — Id.; July 12, 1858. 



Larvcp of Cemiostoma lotella. — Mr. Wilkinson, of Scarborough, has sent me a 

 magniliccnt supply of the larvie of ihis little gem. The mine is at ihbt a round gray 



