im.] 241 



LITROCOLLETIS C0NC03IITELLA, sp. n., AND ITS NEAREST 



ALLIES. 



BY EUSTACE R. BANKES, M.A., E.E.S. 



Some three or four years ago an attempt was made by my 

 esteemed friend, Dr. J. H. Wood, and myself to clear up the long- 

 standing confusion of ideas surrounding the apple-feeding species of 

 Lithocollefis and their nearest allies : some recent notes by Mr. J. AV". 

 Tutt in the Entomologist's Eecord, x, 164 — 8 (1898), have by no 

 means dispelled it. Dr. Wood's observations and conclusions, based 

 chiefly on a microscopic examination of the male genitalia, and a 

 study of the insects in their larval stages, are set forth in a paper, 

 illustrated by structural drawings, shortly to follow this. His con- 

 clusions exactly coincide, except as regards the question of the specific 

 distinctness of L. pyrivorella, sp. n.,fvom mespiJella, Hb., with my own, 

 which are founded on a careful examination of the superficial charac- 

 ters of the imago, and a knowledge of the life-histories of the several 

 species. I have examined large numbers of specimens of all the known 

 British and continental forms, and also, wherever possible, the original 

 types. Appended is a list of the various species under notice, and their 

 synonymy, worked out so as to include the more important references, 

 but it seems impossible to attempt to identify, from their inadequate 

 notices alone, some of the forms mentioned by the older writers, both 

 British and continental ; to base any arguments on the association of 

 special names with the figures of special insects, in such works as 

 W. Wood's "Index Eutomologicus," would be quite unjustifiable. I 

 wish here to express my hearty thanks to Lord Walsingham and Mr. 

 J. Hartley Durrant for their kind help and advice, particularly with 

 respect to some of the more complex questions of nomenclature. 



The well-known name "" pomifoUella " has been altogether aban- 

 doned because Zeller, who first published it, adopting it from Tischer's 

 MS., made his description from a mixed series composed of several 

 distinct species, and afterwards ticketed with the name '''' pomifolielln,''' 

 indicating thereby that he intended it to be regarded as the type 

 specimen, the only example of cydonieUa, F. (which name is consider- 

 ably the older), in the series : no doubt it was selected because it is 

 the brightest and most attractive of all the specimens. Among the 

 rest are hlancardella , F., and concomitella, sp. n., but I have failed to 

 identify satisfactorily Zeller's original type specimens of Lifh. pomi- 

 foliella, var. b (Lin. Eut., i, 19S), L. pomonella (Lin. Ent., i, 201—3), 

 and Lith. pomonella, var. c (Lin. Ent., i, 202), all of which are. in my 



