Ou Pronuha Yvccasclla, 149 



but because Lithos'permum is the food plaut of the larva, just as Pro- 

 nuba yuccasella frequents the yucca flowers — not because they and it 

 are alike white, but because it there deposits its eggs, and liA^es there 

 in the larval state. Thus there is not in the whole family of Tineinn 

 a single instance where a white moth is naturally attracted to a flower 

 because it is white. 



Thus far, these remarks apply only to American species. Let us 

 now look to Europe. Running over the five hundred and ninety species, 

 described as British, by Mr. Stainton, in the Insecta Britannica, 

 vol. 3, in which notes of the habits of the species are also given, only 

 fourteen have been fotmd on flowers of any kind. Anesychia decem- 

 yuttella above mentioned, is one of these, and is the only white one in 

 the number; and we have just seen how and whj^ it frequents the 

 flowers of Lithosjyermuni. Of the remaining thirteen, three are brown- 

 ish golden species of 3Iicropteryx, a genus known in this country only 

 by a single little known and doubtful (?) species (J/. j)oniivorella, 

 Pack.) Two are greenish bronze species of Asychna, a genus not 3-et 

 found in this country; two belong to Coleophora; both are of a green- 

 ish-bronze hue, and indeed, one of them, (J.fabriciiella^ has been rec- 

 ognized by Prof. Zeller as indentical with our flower-visiting species, 

 C, corruscipennella, Clem., above mentioned; two of them belong to 

 Glyphi'pteryx, and are related to our G. mo7itisella, mentioned above as 

 found on Helianthiis, in Colorado; and three of them belong to Adela 

 — greenish or golden-bronze species, allied to our A. bella, above men- 

 tioned, as being found ou Celastrus; while the remaining species 

 belong to JSfematois, closelj^ related in ornamentation, and otherwise to 

 Adela. 



Thus, out of about one thousand four hundred species of Tineina 

 described from this country and Great Brtain, only twenty-two, includ- 

 ing P. yuccasella (and twenty-three, if Mr. Eiley is right as to my 

 Colorado species), have been found on flowers of any kind; of these 

 twenty-three, only four are white species; three of these four are found 

 on white flowers; two of these, P. yuccasella and Anesychia decem^ut- 

 tella, frequent these flowers, not because of color, but because they are 

 the food of the larv?e, and the remaining species referred by Mr. Rile^^ 

 to Hyponomeuta^ seems to be the only " white moth which is naturall}' 

 attracted to white flowers." Truly it is a most provoking insect; if it 

 is a Hyponomeiita, I suggest for it the specific name paradoxica, since 

 it can not be dpiinctella. If it frequents flowers of yucca, because it is 

 white, and is naturally attracted by this color, it is the sole species out 

 of fourteen hundred which does so! If the larva feeds on yucca, it (if 

 it is a Hyponomeuta) violates all the analogies and the unity of habit 

 so prevalent in the genus and family, and is the o\~\\y member of the 



