AN IMPORTANT PREDATORY INSECT. 
(Erastria scitula Ramtmr.) 
An interesting paper upon the habits and metamorphoses of a pre- 
daceous Lepidopter destructive to Bark lice has just been published by 
Dr. H. Eouzaud, of Montpellier, France. This insect, which is a small 
Koctuid moth, was carefully studied by Dr. Eouzaud during 1891 and 
1892, and it has been ascertained that it is a very important factor in 
the life history of the Black Scale of the Olive, Lecanium olece Ber- 
nard, and of several allied Coccidse. Although described sixty years 
ago by Bambur, the species has been little studied. The larva was 
unknown until Milliere in 1875 published a statement that he had 
received specimens from Himmighoffen, of Barcelona, each of which 
Fig. l.—Erastria scitula; a, larva from below ; &, same from above ; c, above, in case ; d, case of full- 
grown larva; e, pupa; /, moth— enlarged (after Eouzaud). 
carried a sort of convex carapace or papyraceous envelope which served 
as a dwelling place, and in which it transformed. In 1884 the same 
author, upon the authority of Peragallo the elder, showed that the 
larva is predatory, feeding upon Ooccidse upon the Peach and plants 
of the genus Xerium, on the shores of the Mediterranean. The extra- 
ordinary form of the larva is mentioned, and it is compared, properly 
enough, with that of Thalpochares communimacula. The description, 
however, was not exact, as Eouzaud points out. 
Eouzaud had been engaged in studying Lecanium olece for some years, 
and in June, 1891, observed an adult of Erastria ovipositing upon the 
