14 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
Perkins, Bank of England , Newcastle - 
on- Tyne ; March 31. 
Eriogaster Lanestris. — This species is 
now just beginning to appear from last 
year’s larvae, one or two at a time; this 
seems curious, for larvae of P. Populi are 
hatching two or three weeks earlier than 
last spring. — Talpa. 
Habits of Nepticula arggropezella . — 
Last October and November I met with 
some yellow larvae, mining close to the 
foot-stalk in leaves of Populus tremula ; 
from these I have now bred specimens of 
a bluish black Nepticula , with very large 
silvery cilia, a minute white spot on the 
outer margin of the anterior wings, and 
a larger spot on the inner margin, nearer 
to the tip of the wing; this Mr. Stainton 
considers N. arggropezella , though much 
blacker than captured specimens. The 
egg appears to be deposited, not on the 
leaf, but on one side of the long stem, 
about a quarter of an inch from its junc- 
tion with the leaf; the young larva, 
penetrating the stem, burrows to the leaf, 
which it enters at the midrib, and mines 
the upper cuticle, rarely passing through 
a rib, but completely devouring, as it 
goes, all the substance between the middle 
and oue side rib, thus forming a wedge- 
shaped mine, with the excrement irregu- 
larly scattered; the larva, when lull fed, 
emerges on the upper side of the leaf, 
and forms on the ground a flat, pale 
brown and rather woolly cocoon, from 
which the pupa is protruded on the 
escape of the perfect insect. From the 
mode of mining, it is obvious that, unlike 
most Nepliculce , only a single larva can 
be nourished by each leaf, and they may 
be collected better in the fallen leaves 
than in those yet on the trees. — P. H. 
Vaughan, Redland, Bristol. 
An Elachista Larva. — Herr Schmid 
has sent me an Elachista larva from 
Frankfort, which he imagines may pro- 
duce the Incertella of Frey, as he found 
it in a locality where that species swarmed 
last May. The larva mines a narrow- 
leaved species of Poa, which grows in 
damp places, in the shade of a wood ; the 
mine of the larva reminds me strongly of 
Nigrella, but the head of the larva is 
black. It is scarcely to be hoped that 
this will produce another new species 
allied to Nigrella. Frey says of his In- 
certella (Linn. Ent. xiii. p.233), “I have 
often entertained a suspicion that this 
species may be the Nigrella of Stainton, 
of which the yellowish grey, brown-headed 
larva feeds likewise ou Poa. But Stainton 
attributes to his species a rounded apex 
of the wing and a nearly straight fascia, 
so that the correctness of my conjecture 
remains rather doubtful.” It will be 
interesting to compare a series bred from 
these larvae with the specimens I have 
considered typical of Nigrella. — H. T. 
Stainton ; April 4. 
Swammerdamia Apicella . — I have this 
morning bred a specimen of this insect 
from the larvae I had had figured and 
described as those of S. Pruni. The 
red-spotted larva is therefore clearly that 
of S. Apicella , and it becomes very pro- 
blematical whether such an insect as 
S. Pruni exists at all !! The description 
given in the ‘ Manual’ (at p. 30(1) of the 
larva of S. Pruni should consequently 
be transferred to the larva of S. apicella. 
• — Ibid ; April 5. 
Slugs and Worms . — I have just made 
a memorandum to bake all the earth and 
moss intended for breeding-cages, and so 
to exterminate the slugs and wood-lice, 
which — small when first introduced into 
the cages — grow large and fat through 
the winter by feeding on the pup*. I 
have known a slug crawl in a straight 
course more than a foot up the side of 
my cage to get at a chrysalis, and then 
feast on it till there was nothing left but 
the empty skin ; they wiil also devour 
whole broods of young larv*. I find 
large earth-worms also very troublesome 
in the flower-pots kept out of doors with 
hybernating larv*; they turn the soil 
upside clown, regardless of carlliern co- 
