1891.1 299 



AN EAELIER NAME FOR TINAQMA BETULM. 

 BY H. T. STAINTON, P.E.S. 



In October, 1890, Dr. Wood published in tbis Macjazine, vol. xxvi, 

 ]). 261, the life-history of Tinaf/ma hetulce, a species then supposed to 

 be new to science. I added a description of the imago in the same 

 number, at p. 2G4. 



In November, 1885, Dr. Sorhagen had proposed for the same 

 insect (then only known to him by the mine of the larva) the name 

 HeUozela HnmmonielJa, in the Entomologische ISTachrichten for 1885, 

 pp. 33S and 339. Dr. Sorhagen showed in this great critical acumen ; 

 he recognised from the structure of the mine, proceeding from the 

 stem of the twig, up the foot-stalk of the leaf, and thence into the 

 mid-rib. that the insect must belong to the genus HeUozela, of Herrich- 

 Schiiffer, and as no species of that genus was then known as a 

 birch-feeder (two species feeding on oak, and one on alder), he con- 

 cluded, w^ithout having seen the imago, and possibly without having 

 seen the larva, that the species was new, and proposed the name 

 Hammoniella. Dr. Sorhagen, whilst collecting mines of Phylloporia 

 histriqelJa, in the little birch trees growing on a peat-bog near Ham- 

 burg, had been struck by the mines, also in birch-leaves, of this new 

 species, and he represents in a wood-cut, at p. 339, the different mines 

 of the two species. 



In a recent number of the Stettin. Entom. Zeitung, 1891, p. 133, 

 Oberlehrer Gr. Stange has called attention to this early notice of the 

 insect by Dr. Sorhagen, and has realized its identity with the Tinagma 

 hetulcB of Dr. Wood and myself. Herr Stange has been fortunate in 

 breeding a considerable number of the imago. 



Major E. Hering, in his interesting Ergtinzungen und Berich- 

 tigungen zu E. O. Biittner's Pommerschen Mikrolepidopteren, in the 

 same number of the Stettin. Entom. Zeitung, refers, at p. 198, to this 

 Hammoniella of Sorhagen. 



Sorhagen, in his Kleinschmetterlinge der Mark Brandenburg, has 

 an appendix, commencing at p. 317, which mentions rather briefly the 

 species known to occur in other parts of North Germany (many of 

 which may eventually be found to occur in the Mark of Brandenburg) ; 

 in this appendix he naturally includes any of the species he had 

 recently found when exploring the peat-bog near Hamburg, and at 

 p. 337, he introduces HeUozela Hammoniella, though rather strangely 

 he fails to give any reference to his earlier publication in the Ento- 

 mologische Nachrichten, for the unearthing of which we are indebted 

 to Oberlehrer Stange. 



Lewisham : October 12th, 1891. 



EE 2 



