THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
107 
be expects, however, to be at home ou 
the following Wednesday, January 11. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
E. H. — Your communication is re- 
ceived, and shall appear shortly. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Gelechia costella. — Mr. Healy’s note, 
at p. 90, is likely to lead young collectors 
to believe that the larva of Gelechia cos- 
tella feeds upon the common reed; but 
its food is the Bitter-sweet ( Solarium 
Dulcamara). The summer brood feeds 
chiefly on the leaves, drawing them 
together, and sometimes enclosing the 
berries. The autumn brood bores into 
the stems, does not change to pupa until 
the spring, and appears in the perfect 
state in April and May, but if kept in- 
doors will often come out much earlier. 
I suspect that the larva of Mr. Healy’s 
specimen had migrated to the reed from 
a neighbouring plant of the Bitter-sweet. 
- — J. W. Douglas, Lee ; Dec. 19. 
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE 
TINEINA. 
Depressaria Litcrella. 
The egg of this species is probably 
laid at the end of autumn, as I am not 
aware that the perfect insect has ever 
been observed to hybernate. The larva 
feeds on the leaves of Centaurea nigra , 
C. Jacea and C. viGntana ; it rolls up the 
leaves in a tubular form, in this habit 
resembling the larv® of Arenella and 
Pallorella, but it feeds earlier in the 
season than those species, namely, in the 
month of May, at the end of which 
month forward specimens have already 
obtained their full size, though others 
are not full fed till the first or second 
week in June. I believe it generally 
descends to the surface of the earth to 
undergo its change to the pupa state. 
At the end of July or beginning of 
August the perfect insect makes its ap- 
pearance, and may be met with during 
the autumnal months. 
H. T. Stainton. 
OBSERVATIONS ON LEPI- 
DOPTEROUS LARVAE. 
BY Q. 
Having during the past season given a 
good deal of my spare time to rearing 
larva from the egg, I now venture to 
send you some notes of my proceedings, 
in the hope that — though they contain 
nothing wonderful or new — they may be 
of use to encourage other beginners to 
do something in the same way. Till 
lately I used to throw away in despair 
the eggs laid by captured moths, but 
this year I took an entirely opposite 
course, and kept every egg I could ob- 
tain, until, towards the end of summer, 
I was fairly beaten by numbers. 
However, I have succeeded in bringing 
on to the state, in which they should at 
present naturally be, nearly sixty broods, 
varying in number of individuals from 
3 to 3 X 30, and comprising more than 
forty species, — having let but one species 
of all that I took in hand slip through 
my fingers. The apparatus I have used 
is that recommended in the ‘ Annual ’ for 
1855, — the flower-pot and glass cylinder, 
— aud for a preparatory academy it 
