1882.] 93 



T)irning then to Nolcken's " Lepidopterologische Fauna von Estland, Livland 

 und Kurland," of which the Micro-Lepidopterous portion appeared in 1870, we read 

 that " on the 24th July, 1862, I obtained a specimen from a larva which I had not 

 noticed more closely. This lived, if I am not mistaken, on alder, and was gelatinous- 

 looking dirty white, with transparent internal canal and brownish head." Nothing 

 is, however, here said of how the alder leaf was treated, the cone-shaped leaf-ends 

 mentioned by Eossler (though likely enough if the insect really fed on alder) is not 

 information supplied by von Nolcken. Moreover, the latter throws an air of doubt 

 over the specimen having been really bred from alder, by saying, " if I am not mis- 

 taken," a parenthesis which is not quoted by Rossler.— H. T. Stainton, Mountsfield, 

 Lewisham : August \Qth, 1882. 



Gelechia maculiferella at Lewisham. — A week ago I could have said not only 

 ! that I had never taken this insect, but that I had never seen it alive on the wing 

 (having only once seen a living bred specimen). On the evening of Saturday last, 

 August 12th, walking by the side of a hawthorn hedge, I noticed some dark grey 

 moths on the wing, which I could not at a glance recognise ; having no net in my 

 hand, I made use of my hat, and was startled to see for a moment (for he was soon 

 out of my hat again) a specimen of Gelechia maculiferella. Being near home I 

 went and fetched my net, and as long as the day-light lasted I was fully occupied 

 boxing this species, and secured 16 ; perhaps the most singular thing was that I did 

 not, when boxing them in the dusk, without any clear knowledge of what was in my 

 net, box a single moth of any other kind. There must have been hundreds on the 

 wing along that hawthorn hedge that evening ! 



The weather was not propitious for several of the following evenings, but on 

 Wednesday, August 16th, though they occurred in much less numbers than on the 

 previous Satui-day, I secured 9, and last night I boxed 6 more. Amongst the 31 

 specimens thus captured a fair proportion ai'e females. 



The insect, as is well known, belongs to that group of the genus Gelechia which 

 is attached to plants of the natural Order Caryoj)hyllacecB,xnj bred specimen having 

 fed in the larva state on Cerastitim semidecandriim , near Frankfort on the Main (it 

 emerged June 2Gth, 18G3), and it is quite possible that it may feed and thrive on 

 Siellaria media, a plant which is very generally distributed ; still its occurrence in 

 such plenty on the wing seems curious, especially when I bear in mind that its close 

 ally, Gelechia fraternella, which used formerly to be very plentiful in the larva state 

 in this neighbourhood, has scarcely ever been noticed by me in its perfect state, thus 

 showing that some of this group, at any rate, lead very concealed lives. 



Oddly enough, three specimens which I received from Herr Joseph Mann, of 

 Vienna, more than 30 years ago, wei-e taken by him on the trunks of haiothorn ti'ees. 

 Had I not actually hred the insect, I might thus have been led to the erroneous 

 conjecture from the flight of last Saturday, that the insect had fed upon the haw- 

 thorn hedge it swarmed along. 



For the series of G. maculiferella in my collection I am mainly indebted to 

 Mr. C. G. Barrett, who supplied me liberally in September, 1874 ; I believe his 

 specimens were captured near Peckham. — Id. : August \Sth, 1882. 



