56 



The Naturalist. 



On seeds, many insects of various families pass the earlier stages of 

 their existence ; of such are ColeopJiora Melilotella, which bores into 

 the husks of melilot seed and uses it as a case afterwards, adding 

 others until it is full fed ; and Olcopliora flavimaculella^ which webs 

 together the ripe heads of Angelica sylvestris, and is very commonly 

 ■distributed. 



In decayed or sound wood, a few species feed. C. Linneella boring 

 into the bark of limetrees in the south, is an example of this class. As 

 miners in grass, mention must be made of the Elachistoe, on account of 

 their interesting habit of feeding inside the blades of even the narrowest 

 grasses, and it was a puzzle to me how the larva of Elachista trisena- 

 tella existed at all under the apparent pressure it underwent in the 

 minute Festuca ovina. These insects also in the pupa state take up a 

 position under a blade of grass and in the hollow side of it, and a single 

 silken cord passed around keeps them in their place until the moment 

 of their last transformation. 



Li\dng gregariously in webs which occasionally extend over several 

 branches of spindle or thorn trees, the small but beautiful family of 

 the Ypometidoe pursue their- devastating labours unharmed by the 

 attack of birds, and but little interrupted by attentions from the more 

 dangerous family of ichneumons. 



(To he continued.) 



ON PRESpRYING ilOSSES. 

 By C. p. Hobkip.k, F.L.S. 



The following remarks have been suggested by one of the later 

 paragraphs in Mr. "West's paper on Mosses, {Xaturali&t Vol. iv, p. 18). 

 There may be much to recommend the process there described, but 

 I think there are better ways of preserving mosses than the one 

 suggested. Mr. West's method, too is open to at least one great 

 objection: mosses when dry are very brittle, and by being kept 

 loosely dried in paper bags, they will be seriously liable, even when 

 carefully handled, of being broken up ; leaf-tips, capsules, calyptra, 

 in fact almost every part will be almost certainly more or less injured 

 by being turned over in the manner suggested by Mr. West. I know 

 from practical experience, the annoyance it is, when wishing to 

 examine a dried specimen preserved (?) in this manner, to find 

 scarcely a perfect leaf on a whole tuft, capsules reduced to powder, 

 and the earthy matter which must frequently be gathered with the 

 mosses, dusting the whole specimen and mixed up with the tufts so as 



