THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
191 
and I enclose it for your inspection, and 
shall be glad of your opinion. 
“ Yours truly, 
“Thojias Brown.” 
Now, as I have not yet seen the species 
which Herr Hofmann has bred, I am 
unable to say whether Mr. Brown’s in- 
sect is identical with the Ratisbon 
novelty ; Init one can see at a glance 
that Mr. Brown’s specimen does not be- 
long to the hop-feeding Eximia, the 
entire base of the anterior wings being 
brassy. In Eximia the base of the 
anterior wings is black, followed by an 
oblique silvery fascia. 
It so bapj)ens that the numerous spe- 
cies of the genus Cosmopteryx (a genus 
which seems to occur in all parts of the 
globe) are so extremely alike, that to a 
cursory observer they appear almost 
identical, and it is only by a close 
scrutiny and a careful comparison of the 
1 habits of the larvcE that the species can 
' be satisfactorily separated. 
One difficulty which presented itself 
to my mind was that the Ratisbon insect 
fed on a grass which does not occur 
here; we have one species of Hierochloe. 
— namely, borealis, — but its localities are 
very restricted, and it does not occur in 
the fens: had Herr Hofmann’s insect fed 
upon any of the common fen grasses there 
would have been strong grounds for con- 
cluding that Mr. Brown’s Cambridge 
'Specimen was the same species. 
In the past week an important addi- 
tion has been made to our knowledge. 
(On the 31si of August, this year, I re- 
ceived from Herr Hofmann a further 
supply of the larvtE of the Cosmopteryx 
of the Hierochloe ; these fed well, but 
having only a limited supply of that 
.grass, it was soon all devoured, and then 
he larva; came out of their mines and 
crawled about the glass-tube in a dis- 
consolate manner, wh'ch was quite pain- 
ful to witness. Would they eat any 
other kind of grass? was the idea that 
occurred to me. The genus Hierochloe 
is placed by Babington between Anthox- 
anthum and Phleum; would either of 
these grasses suit the hungry larvae? 
but then, how to recognise them when 
not in flower? Here was a dilemma ! 
Whilst fnll of this difliculty I went 
along the banks of the Ravensbourne in 
search of the yet-to-be-found larva of 
Stalhmopoda pedella, and as my eye fell 
on a plant of Arundo Phragmites (the 
Common Reed), it occurred to me to 
offer it to the larva; which had been 
feeding on the Hierochloe. I did so, 
and twenty-four hours afterwards I had 
the supreme gratification of seeing four 
larvffi busily mining in the leaves of the 
reed, evidently finding it quite to their 
taste. Hence I entertain little doubt 
that if our fen collectors will search the 
reeds well for an Elachista-YAe. mine, 
from w'hich all the excrement is care- 
fully excluded, they will be able to 
add a very pretty Cosmopteryx to our 
collections. 
H. T. Stainton. 
September 9, 1860. 
JUDICIAL COMMITTEE. 
C U I BONO? 
To the Editor of the ‘ Intelligencer.' 
Sir, — Your correspondent “ H. B.,” in 
the last number of the ‘ Intelligencer,’ 
intimates that there seems to him a great 
want of an authority that could deter- 
mine what novelties should remain per- 
manent in the British lists of Lepi- 
doptcra. 
