THE EMTOr^OLOGISTS 
I WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 241.] SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1861. [Price Id. 
COLUMBUS. 
We can all make an egg stand on 
end, now that we have been shown 
how; . hut why couldn’t we do it 
before? This is the idea that will 
naturally suggest itself to any one 
reading the notices of larvae of Micro- 
pteryx which now pour in upon us. 
Seven years ago, in the ‘ Entomolo- 
gist’s Companion,’ second edition, we 
read, at p. 54, “ Micropteryx . Larva 
entirely unknown.” And, at p. 99, 
“I believe it has been observed that 
particular species of Hymenoptera store 
up only particular species of larvae, 
even though of great rarity. Might 
we not, by observation and study of 
these insects, get a useful hint or two, 
and perhaps a Micropteryx larva?” 
Yet in the very same work we find 
j actually a description of a Micropteryx 
larva (p. 123) “mining in birch leaves, 
apodal, and making linear excrement,” 
only it was there assumed to be Cole- 
opterous. 
We have been talking prose all our 
lives without knowing it; and so we 
have been innocently throwing away 
the larva) of Micropteryx whenever 
we found them. In future we shall 
avoid that error; but shall we learn to 
avoid committing other errors somewhat 
similar? 
If Micropteryx larvae are to he 
found about a month after the perfect 
insect, and if we know what plants the 
perfect insects frequent, we can have 
no difficulty in indicating the time 
and place of many of the larvae. 
Thus — 
Calthella, in June and July, on Caltha 
and Ranunculus. 
Tunheryella, in June, on beech. 
Purpurella, ' 
Salopiella, . , 
„ . „ }• iR May, on birch. 
oemipurpurella, 
(Inimaculella, 
Sparmannella, in May and June, on 
birch. 
Suhpurpurella, in June, on oak. 
Aruncella and Seppella, in July, on 
? 
Mansuetella and Allionella, in June 
and J uly, on ? 
We confess we are at a loss to indi- 
cate the plants which the four last- 
named species frequent; but now that 
attention is so forcibly directed to this 
group we cannot doubt that a few 
months will pour a flood of light upon 
the subject. 
H 
