24 f January, 



OCCURRENCE AT PORTLAND OF TINEA SUBTILELLA, FUCHS, 

 A SPECIES NEW TO THE BRITISH FAUNA. 



BY N. M. RICHAIiDSON, B.A. 



I have the pleasure of recording the capture of a small moth new 

 to Britain, Tinea subtilella, Fuchs. One afternoon early in August 

 Mrs. Eichardson and I were collecting at Portland, and I had left her 

 for a short time to go after one or two species which occur on some 

 steep slopes, when she caught a very small moth and boxed it with 

 some difficulty, and soon afterwards took a second, having been much 

 struck with the very hairy head of the first one, which she did not 

 recognise as having seen before. She did not rejoin me until it was 

 beginning to grow dusk, too dark to see what the little moth was. 



Next day we examined it carefully, and came to the conclusion 

 that it must be a Tinea, though it evidently did not belong to any of 

 our British species, being much too small in the first place, though 

 this, in one of this genus is not conclusive evidence, and unlike in 

 other respects to those most nearly allied to it. 



Mr. Stainton has, with his usual kindness, named the species for 

 me, and also gave me some interesting particulars about it, which he 

 has kindly promised to add to this note. 



As might have been expected, we went several times to Portland 

 (a drive of an hour and half or more) in pursuit of this little creature, 

 but took only eight specimens altogether between us. T. suhtileUa 

 flies at dusk on favourable evenings for a short time, with an 

 irregular sort of flight, and when it pitches on a stone or leaf, it runs 

 away at a great pace, and causes many an anxious moment before it 

 either disappears from view or is safely housed in a box, round which 

 it still runs with frantic vigour. In consequence of all this motion 

 its condition is not generally very good by the time it is made into a 

 cabinet specimen. I have not observed it flying at night or in the 

 earlier part of the day. 



I append a short description of this moth — 



Exp. al., 3i — 3j"'. Size (in the eight specimens I liave) very constant. Head 

 very hairy, pale reddish-ochreous ; eyes black, very conspicuous when the insect is 

 at rest. Fore-wings and fringes shining pale ochreous, with a slight appearance of 

 a darker greyish spot at the tip of the wing, and with the costa at the base also 

 somewhat darker. Hind-wings and fringes very pale greyish-ochreous. Antennae, 

 legs and thorax pale ochreous, like fore-wings ; body more the colour of hind-wings. 



The moth bears some resemblance to a very small T. biselliella. 



Montovideo, near Weymouth : 



JJicembcr I2(k, 1890. 



