176 [January, 



Mr. John Sang, of Darlington, \\lio lias been working very dili- 

 gently at this subject for some time, has lately sent me such an accu- 

 mulation of evidence, that I have no alternative but to surrender at 

 discretion. Mr. Sang forwarded me six specimens bred from Carex 

 . (5 ;^, 1 ? ), along with twelve captured specimens of the same species^ 

 and, by the side of the latter, twelve of what he considers the ordinary 

 Kilmunella, taken on the moors at the end of June and in July, and 

 he pointed out that " the Carex feeder is brown, not grey, and the 

 *' fascia in the ^ is distinct on the dorsal margin, but becomes almost 

 " obsolete towards the costa. The position of the spots is curious, the 

 " dorsal spot pointing iuwai'ds and the costal spot outwards ; whereas, 

 " in Kihnunella, the two spots either form a slightly angulated or a 

 " slightly sinuous fascia, and the first fascia is distinct to the costa, so 

 " that the insect appears to have two fasciae. The cilia in Kilmunella 

 " seem to me much whiter. The wing of Kihnunella is decidedly more 

 "truncate looking. The bred insect can only have one brood : I bred 

 " the ? as late as the 23rd August." 



Mr. Sang describes the habit of the larva as follows : 



" The larvfB mine the long (old) leaves of Carex riparia, no doubt beginning in 

 "the autumn and feeding most of the winter, making a narrow, indistinct, pale mine, 

 "with no sign of ' frass ' in it ; very like that of E. luticomella in Dactj/lis. When 

 " it comes to the lower end of the leaf, it enters the stem, goes down to the top of 

 " the root («o< into it), and then up and down till full fed, by that time having 

 "hollowed out a gallery of considerable width with much soft brown 'frass' in it; 

 " very like the work of an internal-feeding Noctua larva." 



The next question that will arise is this : if the Carex feeder be 

 distinct from the original Kilmunella, has it ever been named and 

 described ? 



Long ago, I described an insect in the possession of the late Mr. 

 Edleston, of Manchester, under the name of Klachisfa alpinella ; but 

 in the Entomologist's Annual for 1855, p. 56 (2nd edition, p. 78), I 

 said (after noticing that Kilmunella had been " bred from larvse found 

 " by Mr. Scott in a species of Carex, near Fochabers, Banffshire ") 

 "I am inclined to think that E. a^nnella, I. B., p. 251, is only a form 

 "of this species ;" and, subsequently, I sunk this alpinella altogether 

 as a synonym of Kilmunella, which I well remember now was not at 

 all satisfactory to Mr. Edleston. 



The description given in the " Insecta Britannica : Lepidoptera 

 Tineina," p. 254, is as follows : 



" Alpinella, Edleston in lit. Alis anticis fuscis, maculis trihus indistinctis albidis, 

 " una dorsali ante medium, secunda ad angulum aualem, tertia costali ante apicem ; 

 " capite fusco. Exp. al. 4^ lin. 





