i^s:;.| 251 



n\ TWO OF THE SPECIES OP GELECHIA WHICH FREQUENT 

 OUR SALT-MARSHES. 



BY H. T. STAINTON, F.K.S. 



Professor Zeller, in 1843 (Stettin, ent. Zeit., 281—283) pointed 

 (i:it how it might so chance that an author should begin by describing 

 ;'ii insect from one species, and then, a few years later, add some 

 (iiiishing touches to his description from a totally different species; 

 for he showed us very clearly that Linne, in 1746, in the First Edition 

 of the Fauna Suecica (before names were yet given) correctly described 

 our present Plutella cntciferarum, with "Habitat in Hortis oleraceis," 

 and " volitat juxta terram," but in the second edition of the Fauna 

 Suecica (1761) with the name " Xylosfella''' came the new habit: 

 " Habitat in Lonicerce xylostei foliis," and the total omission of the 

 " Hortis oleraceis" and the " Yolitat juxta terram," slight verbal 

 oinissions and alterations in the description also tending to show the 

 new bias in the author's mind. 



Six years later Linne, in the 12th Edition of the Systema Naturae, 

 continued the "Habitat in Lonicera xylosteo,''' but added "in Cheirantlii 

 floribus." The description, however, is so touched up and altei'ed as 

 to apply solely to the insect long known as liarpella, Hiibner, dentella, 

 Fabricius, &c., and for which I have myself preferred to retain the 

 Linnean name of xylostella, leaving for the " kitchen-garden insect, 

 which flies near the ground" the more appropriate name suggested by 

 Zeller, in 1843, of crthcifcrarum. 



We seem in the process, which must have passed through the 

 mind of Linne, to see a new form of evolution of species ! 



I have been led to the foregoing reflections by finding myself 

 rather in a difilculty, when seeking to ascertain which of two coast- 

 frequenting species of Gelecliia was the original instahilella. 



It is now 37 years since Douglas wrote the description of 

 Anncampsis instahi'leUa, which appeared in the Zoologist for 1846, p. 

 1270. We there read that " this insect was by no means uncommon 

 on the salt-marshes, near St. Osyth, Essex, in July, but when they 

 rose from the herbage the wind blew so strongly, that it was no easy 

 matter to catch them. It is a species that varies exceedingly both in 

 colour and marking, but none of the varieties approach any hitherto 

 named species." 



In my volume of the Insecta Britannica (published in 1854) 

 appears, at p. 126, the additional information " Mr. Douglas bred this 

 species last autumn from larvae he found at Brighton, in k ugust, feeding 

 on Salicornia Tierhacea and ChenopoSinm maritimiim^'' and, in the 



