THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
125 
Entomology — let me try to excite the 
curiosity of a few of my readers. 
In a former paper on “ What there is 
beneath our Noses,” I touched upon the 
Elachista, and showed where they were 
to be found in their earlier stages. In 
this paper I shall point to a few others 
equally interesting. 
When the woods are beginning to look 
green, and have put on the freshness of 
summer, almost every leaf of every tree 
and bush begins to be tenanted by larvae 
of one kind or other. Some dwell in 
little pavilions, which days and nights 
of incessant labour have enabled them 
to construct, as in the genus Lithocolletis. 
Others trace out strange characters, of 
which each species writes a language of 
its own, as in the Neplicula. Others 
bear about with them their houses on 
their backs, and leave evidence of their 
work in the leaves, in the numerous 
deserted blotches having a central hole, 
through which the caterpillar has mined 
its way between the skins : these are the 
Coleophorae. The species of each of 
these genera are very numerous, and, 
thanks to curiosity, on seeing how far 
we were left behind in this field by our 
Continental brethren, we have been in- 
duced, within the last few years, to set to 
work in right good earnest, and recover, 
as far as possible, the ground we had 
lost: and I am convinced that every one 
who has lent himself to the task has 
been astonished at the success attending 
his investigations. There seems to be 
no end of new things turning up, and 
we are all puzzled to think how they 
should have escaped us so long. 
But, independent of new things, we 
have yet a wonderful deal to learn in con- 
nection with the earlier stages of many of 
our commonest species of Micro-Lepi- 
doptera. Is Acentropus niveus a moth? 
or does it belong to the Phryganidm — 
genus , Chimarra P and why should the 
Phryganidae not have representatives of 
the moths in their transformations ? Who 
can say anything as to the whereabouts 
of the larvae of the genus Micropteryx? 
are they miners or do they construct 
cases similar to the Incurvaria group ? 
Have Lampronia , Incurvaria , Micro- 
pteryx and other genera anything to do 
with the Tineina, or do they not rather 
belong to a section of the Bombyces ? 
This is not only my own idea, but that 
also of a friend, from whom I have 
learned much. What is our genus 
Butalis going to be reduced to ? Incon- 
gruella is a case-bearer; Torquatella a 
singularly hairy larva, mining the birch 
leaves. Is Pancalia Leuivenhcelcella a 
miner, and is Latreillella a distinct spe- 
cies ? What do the larvae of Coleophora 
vulnerarice and niveicostella feed on? 
Mr. Stainton invariably takes the latter 
species amongst Hippocrepis comosa. Can 
any one find any trace of the larva on 
this plant? Who can distinguish be- 
tween the mine of Lithocolletis irradiella 
and other species mining the oak-leaves? 
Does the larvae of the genus Opostega 
mine the leaves of some of the grasses? 
and is the genus Opostega related to the 
genus Elachista ? Why are the Nepli- 
culce put at the end of our list? and are 
they not more nearly related to In- 
curvaria and others ? Do the larvae of 
Lithocolletis , Elachista , Nepticula, & c., 
moult as other larvae with which we are 
acquainted do, and if so, what becomes 
of the cast-off skins ? 
There are many other queries which 
curiosity leads me to ask for information 
on, but it is as well only to give out a 
little at a time ; besides this paper is 
getting lengthy, and I will therefore 
make a finish, and content myself with 
