102 [April, 



list is subjected to some degree of careful scrutiny, and the evidence 

 pretty closely sifted, and if it is also a species the usual range of 

 which does not appear to approach our geographical position, great 

 doubt is felt until, by the capture of further examples, the claim of 

 the species to a place in our lists is established. But in the case of 

 Gatoptria decolorana no record, as far as I can ascertain, exists of the 

 capture of a single specimen in these islands in any stage of its life, 

 and the only intimation of its existence is found in a quotation 

 (imaginary) of a record which never was made. 



The earliest notice of the name which I can find in our publica- 

 tions is in the " Entomologist," vol. xiii, p. 269, in a paper by the late 

 Mr. Walter Weston, where he stated that, "Mr. Machin records having 

 reared this species in some numbers from larvae feeding in the seed- 

 heads of golden rod {SoUdago virgaurea), collected at the end of 

 September and in October in woods in Kent and Surrey." But no 

 such statement was ever made by Mr. Machin. In the same periodical, 

 vol. xii, p. 109, he stated in the words quoted that Catoptria cemulana 

 bad been so reared by him, and he went on to say that an allied 

 form, which he believed to be a distinct species, occurred in the salt 

 marshes at the mouth of the Thames. He indicated some of its dis- 

 tinctions, and suggested Aster tripolium as its probable food-plant. 

 In order to be quite certain of my point, I have written to my old 

 friend Mr. Machin, and he replies that he never made the statement 

 attributed to him with regard to decolorana, but has always held that 

 the species reared by him from SoUdago to be cei/mlana (as it un- 

 doubtedly is). In the same year (1879) he obtained larvse in the 

 flowers of Aster tripolium, and reared the moths in the following 

 summer. I was equally successful with the larvse which he sent me, 

 and thereby accumulated the evidence for which I had been waiting, 

 in order to introduce and describe the new species, which took the 

 name of tripoliana. As far as I have been able to ascertain, no 

 previous description of tripoliana exists, and the name should apparently 

 stand for the salt-marsh species. 



But Mr. Weston's statement with regai'd to decolorana is per- 

 plexing. I do not believe that he intentionally misquoted Mr. Machin ; 

 he must have trusted to memory, and some confusion of names must 

 have crept in. He was a genuine and earnest student of the Tortrices, 

 and had an extensive acquaintance with them. AVhen publishing the 

 series of notes in which this mistake occurs, he did me the honour of 

 consulting me on many difficult points, and sent me portions of his 

 MS. from time to time, but certainly the [)ortion now in question did 



