HABITS AND BREEDING OF MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA.* 

 By J. H. The ELF ALL. 



Before entering upon this subject, a few general remarks on the 

 observation and collection of micro-lepidoptera may not be out of place. 

 It has been objected by collectors of the larger species that the minute 

 size and obscure habits of the micros place a too great difficulty in the 

 way, especially of those whose time for study is limited. I venture to 

 say that this difficulty exists principally in the minds of those who 

 say so ; and that even if it be true, that we should find in the fact 

 itself reason sufficient for the increasing array of micro-] epidopterists 

 throughout the country, and in no part of England are there better 

 materials to be found for making excellent observers and manipulators 

 than in this manufacturing district of Lancashire, where men's daily 

 occupation compels them to think as well as labour — to use their heads 

 in combination with their hands. 



Also it is trae that as the organic forms of life become smaller, they 

 are more abundant, and whereas in the case of the Sphingidee a few 

 larvae only will generally be found feeding on a single tree, a nut leaf 

 has been known to afford sustenance to more than a dozen of Nepticula 

 microthenella. 



The variety of habit and manner of feeding is quite as great as 

 amongst the Macros, and the interest of the study will not be decreased 

 by the reasonable hope of more frequent and interesting discoveries. 



The trees which yield the most prolific harvest appear to be the 

 birch, willow, oak, and thorn ; and during the months of May, July, 

 and October fche first-named in favoured localities actually swarms 

 with larvae feeding in the most diverse ways. Small sheltered trees or 

 low branches near the trunk afford chosen residences for the several 

 species of birch-feeding Nepticulce and Lilhocolldes — the former indica- 

 ting their presence to the eye "by narrow tracks in the leaf filled with 

 excrement, or in a wider blotch. The larvae may be seen by holding the 

 leaf up towards the sky, and their operations whilst eating away the 

 parenchyma of the leaf between the outside sheaths is extremely inter- 

 esting under a lens. The large family of Lithocolletes feed in a some- 

 what similar manner, but the leaf is drawn together so as to give it a 

 wrinkled or puckered appearance. Once having become familiar with 

 these the smallest objects, where none are large, all difficulty with 

 regard to size vanishes ; the only one which remains is that common to 



* Kead before Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. 



