1879. 229 



SYNONYMICAL NOTES ON THE SPECIES OF SWAMMSEBAMIA. 

 BY E. L. EAGO:S^OT. 



lu working out tlie life histories of the European Micro-Leiji- 

 doptera, I had been struck with the confusion which exists on the 

 synonymy of the species of the genus Sioa miner damia, and two years 

 ago I submitted to Prof. Zeller my views on the subject. 



The confusion has been caused by the inaccuracy of the iigures in 

 Hiibner's work, a change he made in the names in his catalogue, and 

 also by the variability of the species, particularly ccesiella, Hb. 

 {griseocapitella, Stn.). . 



Hiibner figures three species, viz., ccesiella, Hb., with a white 

 head and grey thorax (fig. 172) ; ccBsiella, Hb. (fig. 860), with a white 

 head, thorax and inner margin; and cerasiella, Hb. (fig. 332). Of 

 these he describes only the first, thus : " Fig. 172, Tin. ccssiella. The 

 head is white, but the thorax and upper wings are of a bluish-grey 

 colour, the latter have a brownish band in the middle, and a white spot 

 on the costa of the wings ; the under wings and the abdomen are 

 ashy-grey." 



This ^description applies well to the variety of griseocapitella 

 which has the thorax grey, but it suits still better oxyacanthella, Dup., 

 and I would be inclined to give the name of ccesieUa to this species, 

 were it not that tradition makes the birch feeder (under the name of 

 Seroldella) the true ccesielJa of Hiibner, and that the birch feeder 

 has often a grey thorax. 



In his " Yerzeichniss bekannter Schmetterlinge," Hiibner retains 

 the name of ccesiella for his fig. 360 ; whilst, further on, in his genus 

 Swammerdamia, he changes the name of his fig. 172 to Seroldella, 

 which he places next to his cerasiella (fig. 332). 



Treitschke, following Hiibner, describes the birch feeder under 

 the name of Seroldella, so do Fischer von Eoslerstamm and Du- 

 ponchel ; but as Hiibner, according to the rules of nomenclature, had 

 no right to change a good name once given, we must drop the name 

 of Heroldella and retain that of ccesiella (the earlier name) for the 

 birch feeder, which name is used by Herrich-Schaffer, Frey and Heine- 

 mann. These authors, however, seem to have entirely overlooked 

 Hiibner's fig. 172, which is the type of the species, and refer only to 

 his fig. 360, which, I consider, represents better the sloe feeder 

 (spiniella). GriseocapitelJa, Stn., may be retained as a variety of 

 ccesiella, Hb., with brownish frontal tuft and dark thorax. Nubecu- 

 lella, Tgst., would be a synonym of griseocapitella. 



