1880 .] 
45 
rapidly as Tinea pellionella in the box. I watch them carefully through the glass- 
topped boxes, those habits conclusively put Schivarziella to one side. I sent six to 
Mr. Stamton, both sexes, in fine order, he writes me they are Nemophora pilella, a 
species that has been taken in Glen Lilt, and at Rannoch, Scotland, and among 
Vaccmium, in Germany ; now that he sees a fine series, not having before seen many 
specimens, he has no doubt mine are this species, the main and most distinctive dif- 
ference being the dark under-wings which are quite of a purplish black, I may add 
theie aie no other plants for the larva to feed on but Vaccinium and fir, little or no 
heath grows beneath the fir trees ; I never had this species before, and what I have 
seen under this name in collections are only Schwarziella ; even Schivarziella’ s fore- 
"v\ ings are not as rounded as those of N~. pilella nor yet so scaly ; it comes near 
Metaxella in general appearance. — J. B. IIodgkinson, 15, Spring Bank, Preston : 
June 13th, 1880. 
Strange habitat for the larva of Batrachedra preeangusta. — On the 10th inst., I 
received from Lord Walsingham a healthy living larva of this species, which he had. 
found in a nest of a goldfinch. Lord Walsingham writes thus :- — ■“ In the lining of 
a goldfinch s nest I found to-daj the larva sent herewith. At first it puzzled me 
“ much, but when I saw the lining of the nest was made of the cotton-like down from 
the sallow catkins, I recognised the larva of Tatrachedra preeangusta. During the 
“ last two seasons I had searched more than once for this larva to send you, but in 
“ vain”. 
The occurrence of larvae in birds’s-nests is nothing unusual, as they are the natural 
habitat of Tinea lapella and possibly of some other species of the genus Tinea ; but 
in the present instance the larva was a foreign body accidentally introduced , and no 
doubt the larva itself helped to explain to Lord Walsingham of what materials the 
lining of the nest was really composed, for the larva of T. preeangusta is so remarkably 
conspicuous that any one who has once seen it can hardly fail to recognise it wherever 
met with. — II. T. Stainton, Mountsfield, Lewisham, S.E. : June 12 th, 1880. 
Eidophasia Messingiella at Hokendorf, near Stettin. — On the 16th instant (I 
was then on a visit to Dr. Dohrn, at his residence at Hokendorf), I went in the fore- 
noon to a locality where I knew that the larva of E. Messingiella was to be found on 
Cardamine amara. Though we had had a long period of dry weather, I found it 
just as moist in the alder- woods as usual. I remained there sweeping the low 
herbage (though much tormented by midges) for tw r o hours and collected upwards 
of 100 larvae, of different sizes, of Eidophasia Messingiella. To-day about a score 
have spun up and t-vvo are already in pupa. — P. C. Zeller, Griinhof, near Stettin : 
May 21 si, 1880. 
Mamestra pomerana, at Misdroy on the Baltic. — My friend Professor Hering 
has made two excursions lately. He and Herr Biittner were at Misdroy on the 
Baltic, where they obtained from under the roots of Artemisia maritima, buried in 
the sand, about 150 pupae of Mamestra pomerana. (I do not know whether this 
species has yet been detected in England). At the same place they also found a 
number of larvae of Agrotis prcecox. — Id. 
[ Mamestra pomerana is described by G. Schulz in the Stettin, ent. Zeitung,1869, 
i 
