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market garden grounds get less in extent year by year; the old 
mansions with extensive gardens are pulled down, and rows of 
cottages with little else but back yards built over the sites; while 
even the parks and commons first become more frequented, and then 
more strictly kept, and then levelled, provided with paths, and 
generally improved, as it is called, out of all recognition. The 
consequence is that every plant which is neither of economic nor 
ornamental value, eventually becomes exterminated, and naturally the 
lepidoptera which are dependent for their existence on such plants 
share the same fate. Among these plants may be mentioned one or 
two species of Chenopodium and Atriplex, and the moths dependent on 
them here are— Aristotelia hermannella and A. stipella, Scythris clieno- 
podiella and Coleophora laripennella. Solatium dulcamara , which 
nourishes Gelechia costella ; Stellaria holostea, the foodplant of 
Coleophora solitariella; and even Ballota nigra, to which Coleophora 
lineola is attached, are further examples. These plants are now found 
in waste corners of the roadsides, or in hedges, but are destroyed when 
the roads are taken over by the various Councils, or when a hedge is 
grubbed up and a wire rail substituted. From a collector’s point of 
view these wire rails are useless, and I am sorry to say that in some 
of the parks they are taking down the old oak palings, on which so 
many moths used to rest by day, and substituting for them these cold, 
comfortless, metal abominations. 
Another class of species that will probably soon become much 
diminished in the number of individuals, is that which is attached to 
plants of ornamental value, but which does not find the condition 
under which such plants are grown a suitable one. Several species of 
the genus Lithocolletis may be cited as examples of this class. The 
larvae of these little moths, at one time known as “ Stainton’s ducks,” 
mine the leaves of trees and pass the winter in cocoons in the dead 
leaves lying on the ground. In the early summer they emerge and 
fly up to the trees, and so the race is continued. Now in gardens and 
some parks, these leaves are all swept up in the autumn and carried 
away, naturally, most of the Lithocolletids are borne away too, and 
thus the race is gradually diminished. Adela viriddla will share the 
same fate, but where Lithocolletis messaniella is provided with an ilex 
tree, it will probably continue, as this tree retains its leaves through 
the winter, with the Lithocolletis inside some of them. Phyllocnistis 
sujfusella mines the leaves of poplars, but as this species hybernates in 
the perfect state, it has a much better chance of escaping destruction. 
Another set of species which are fast becoming restricted to the 
damper parts of parks and commons are the rush-feeders, such as 
Glyphipteryx fuscoviridella and G. thrasonella, Coleophora caespitiella, C. 
glaucicolella, and C. alticolella. When the commons are taken over 
by the authorities, the lower and damper spots are sometimes filled up 
and levelled, and the rushes and rush-feeders consequently destroyed. 
Thus we see how, in all probability, we shall soon lose some of 
the species which now still inhabit the district. On the other hand, 
there are many species which will probably survive the alterations 
from rural to suburban conditions. One set of these consists of those 
species which are able to accommodate themselves to cultivated 
substitutes of their original foodplants when the latter are no longer 
obtainable. Perhaps one of the most notable instances of this class is 
