February, l.SiiT.] 25 



OCCURRENCE IN IRELAND OP PLATYPTILlA TES SUE A DACTYL A, 

 L., == FISCHERI, Zell. 



BY C. G. BARRETT, F. E. S. 



AraontT some Micro-Lepidoptera recently forwarded for examina- 

 tion from Ireland bj Mr. W. F. de Yismes Kane, I fonud a single 

 specimen of a small " Plume " not recognisable as a British species, 

 but approaching more closely to Platt/ptilia tesseradactyla than to 

 any other known to me, yet differing somewhat in colour from Swiss 

 examples of that species. At my request Mr. Kane promptly sent 

 several more specimens, with the following remarks : — ■" They were 

 taken by myself and the Hon. R. E. Dillon in the first week of June, 

 1895, at Clonbrock, flying in the sunshine to the flowers of a species 

 of Gnaphalium on a dry bank alongside of a bog. Mr. Dillon had 

 taken a series of them in a previous year, but I could not name them, 

 and fancied that they must be Zetterstedtii. They have been in a 

 store box since awaiting identification, and I therefore included a 

 specimen for your opinion. I may mention that I subsequently took 

 a single specimen on June 11th in the sanie year in another Galway 

 locality. They are fairly plentiful in the restricted area where we 

 found them at Clonbrock, but I should think could be easily extermi- 

 nated there if worked for persistently. The other little whitish plume 

 {Aciptilia tetradactyla) was also flying in the same spot." 



About these specimens thei-e can be no doubt. They, like the 

 first, are whiter than Continental specimens, with the dark markings 

 grey rather than brown, but otherwise having every character of P. 

 tesseradactyla. 



It bears some resemblance to Platypiilia gonodactyla (trigonodactybis) , but is 

 less than one-half its size, being in fact decidedly smaller than the occasional dwarf 

 second brood specimens of that species. Fore-wings narrow at the base, but rather 

 suddenly broadened behind and shortly angulated at the apex, so as to present a 

 rather stumpy appearance ; pale grey-brown dusted with white, and having two 

 oblique, white, transverse stripes toward the hind margin, one of them crossing the 

 base of the fissure, and the other crossing both lobes ; immediately before the first 

 of these is the usual dark costal triangle, of a dark grey-brown ; preceding this, in 

 the middle of the costal margin, is a small dark cloudy spot, a pair of similar spots 

 lies on the dorsal margin before the middle and a pair of minute dark dots at the 

 base of the fissure ; cilia sharply white. Hind-wings dark fuscous with a golden 

 gloss; cilia smoky-brown, except at the tip of each lobe, where is, in each case, a 

 dash of pale yellow, on the dorsal side halfway down the third lobe is a darker 

 fuscous tuft in the cilia. Antennae pale brown, barred with white ; head and front 

 of thorax pale umbreous, hinder part of thorax white ; abdomen whitish-brown ; 

 legs whitish, the tibia; of the hinder pair having a brownish cloudy dash before each 

 pair of spurs. 



