imtr.j _ 229 



These two males are six-tentlis of an incli in expanse of wings — that is to say, 

 about one-tenth broader than those of S. inconspicueUa — a sufficiently noticeable 

 difference in siie in these minute creatures ; and their fore-wings are a little broader, 

 especially behind, so as to produce a fuller anal angle ; colour whitish, with the 

 nervures pale brown, and between them fainter regular cross-lines, which give it a 

 delicately chequered appearance ; very pretty, and devoid of the dusky clouding 

 which sometimes obscures the reticulations in S'. inconspicueUa ; hind-wings semi- 

 transparent, whitish, with brownish nervures, but no cross reticulations ; the 

 nervures are furnished with rather long divergent scales ; cilia rather darker at the 

 apex ; antennae notched, brown ; head and thorax rough from raised scales ; female 

 with well formed legs and antennae, a glossy dorsal shield, and a very pure white 

 anal tuft, beyond which the ovipositor sheath is short and broadly wedge-shaped. 

 The cases are very black. 



When I first saw these I thought it probable that this species was identical 

 with Mr. Sidebotham's triquetrella, and that Mr.' Doubleday had received male 

 specimens from Mr. Logan, or else cases from which he had reared them ; but this 

 conclusion would appear to be unsound in view of a notice (forwarded to me by 

 Mr. Evans) by Mr. Logan in the "Naturalist," 1852, p. 231, of finding " on May 

 13th, 1851, on the wall of a sheep-fold on the Pentlands considerable numbers of 

 tlie cases of one of those singular insects called by the Germans ' Sack-tragers,' 

 the enclosed insects being still in the pupa state, but quite ready to burst their 

 envelope, as all emerged in the course of a few days after, and were without a 

 single exception females." " Without both sexes it is difficult to determine the 

 species, but it would appear to be closely allied to the continental Taleporia 

 lichenella." This, J fear, deprives us of all indication of the origin of Mr. Double- 

 day's specimens, and leaves this larger Solenobia to be re-discovered. 



39, Linden Grove, Nunhead : 

 December, 1896. 



P.S. — I append some notes on these specimens with which I have been favoured 

 by Lord Walsingham : — 



[We have examined your SolenobicB with great care. Those from the millstone 

 grit are decidedly the same as those from Prestwich Wood, and we cannot separate 

 them from the true inconspicueUa. 



The three supposed triquetreUa, ? , appear to us to agree with a species sent 

 to me by Rebel as inconspicueUa. The case is identical, and the ? has the same 

 olive shade. They are not inconspicueUa, and they are not triquetreUa, but are 

 probably NickerUi, Hein., which he rightly differentiates from WocJcii, as well as 

 from inconspicueUa. The case of triquetreUa is less triangular, and apparently 

 always roughened at the end in the ? , and more or less all over in the $ . Mr. 

 Hamm's Reading species appears to be quite distinct. The ? is blacker than that 

 of pineti, although the cases are very similar. The cases ci)llected by Mr. Evans 

 at Pentland appear to be of the same species as those from Reading, but are 

 decidedly distinct from those collected by Logan, also from the Pentlands. Little 

 or nothing more can be done until males are bred of those species still unidentified. 



— WALSI.\GHA^f.] 



