December, 1909.1 265 



acquaintance with leucomelanella, which T have both bred and cap- 

 tured plentifully in several English localities, has shown it to be very 

 variable, and to display at times all the reputed characteristics of 

 vicinella. The ground-colour of the fore-wing varies, in fine 

 specimens, from fuscous-black, against which the deep black markings 

 are hardly distinguishable, to fuscous, whilst, in worn ones, it rauges 

 from fuscous to whitish. The typical white markings, moreover, 

 especially those other than the fascia, are, in some individuals, so 

 obscured with fuscous as to approach the ground-colour more or less 

 closely (= ab. suffusa, 11. ob.), whilst in others they show an 

 abnormal extension, with, of course, a proportionate reduction of the 

 area occupied by the ground-colour (= ab. albescens, 11. ab.). In 

 general the females tend to be rather paler than the opposite sex. 



Stainton's third expoiieut of vicinella, which bore on its pin his 

 written label "I. of Man, C. S. G. [i. e., C. 8. Gregson.— E. E. B.], 

 30/7/66," and below which was pinned another label in his hand- 

 writing, " Gelechia vicinella, Dg\., b. from Silene mariti?na,'^ was 

 absolutely identical in every respect with some of the seven fine 

 individuals from Pembroke, Probus (Cornwall), and Tenby, which 

 composed his British series of leucomelanella, Z. ! It was darker than 

 some of my own bred leucomelanella, and presented a striking 

 contrast to the wasted type specimens of vicinella. Silene maritima, 

 long known as a food-plant of leucomelanella, has been recorded, 

 presumably on Stainton's authority, as the food-plant of vicinella by 

 both Merrin [Lep. CaL, ed. 2, p. 56 (1875)], and Meyrick [HB. Br. 

 Lep., 596 (1895)]. Kaltenbach [Pflanz. Klas. Ins., 135 (1874)] and 

 Sorhagen [Kleinschmet. d. M. Brand., 195 (1886)] give, on Bruand's 

 authority, the larva of vicinella as feeding on Coronilla emerus, but 

 the fact ihat this plant belongs to a different Natural Order from 

 Silene suggests the thought that Bruand's insect was probably neither 

 ab. vicinella, nor any other form of leucomelanella. Eebel [Stgr. and 

 Ebl., Cat., ii, p. 149, No. 2711 (1901)] rightly treats vicinella, H.-S. 

 (fig. 474, V, p. 184), as synonymous with junctella, Dgl., the food- 

 plant of which appears to be still unknown. 



From Ent. Ann., 1862, pp. 129—30, we learn that Barrett took 

 both Gelechia leucomelanella and '' G. vicinella " amongst Silene 

 maritima on the Dublin coast about 1861, and that he thought this 

 Silene was very likely the food-plant of vicinella, but searched re- 

 peatedly for the larva without success. In December, 1907, I acquired 

 his series of vicinella, which consists of ten specimens, without 

 separate labels, arranged just above his written label " Dublin," and 



