i8sa.] 253 



For this now nameless insect I would propose the name of 

 Gelechia ])lantaqinella. 



Plantaginella is a larger and broader-winged insect than insta- 

 lilella, it generally expands rather over 7 lines, instahilella rarely 

 reaches 6^ lines, and some small specimens which Mr. Jentinsou 

 obtained in the Scilly Isles, are considerably under 6 lines. In 

 platitaginella tlie apical nervures o£ the anterior wings are generally 

 more or less distinctly indicated as greij streaks on the brown ground- 

 colour. The pale sub-apical spots are much more faintly expressed 

 than is often the case in instahilella, for I must admit that this latter 

 species is very variable in that respect. Beyond the pale sub-apical 

 spots we generally see in plantaginella about 8 black spots round the 

 apex of the wing ; even this character is, however, not constant, as I 

 have specimens of plantaginella without them, and I have some of the 

 paler specimens of instahilella which show them indistinctly. In both 

 species we see occasionally a dark streak from the base down the centre 

 of the wing. 



The larva of plantaginella should differ essentially from that of 

 instahilella, having the head and second segment black, whereas, in the 

 larva of instahilella, the head is pale yellowish-brown and the second 

 segment pale greyish-white. Moreover, the larva of plantaginella 

 shows no trace of the four dull reddish interrupted lines along the 

 back, which we see in the larva of instahilella. 



Eeferring to vol. 2 of the " Manual of British Butterflies and 

 Moths," p. 3i0, the descriptions of the imago there given of ocellatella 

 and instahilella both refer to the same species — ocellatella representing 

 a more ochreous specimen, and instahilella a greyer specimen of 

 instahilella ; but the two larvae there described are those of the two 

 distinct species, that described as the larva of ocellatella being really 

 the larva of instahilella (of Y^hich ocellatella is merely a synonym), but 

 that described as the larva of instahilella is really that of planfiiginella. 

 The larva of instahilella seems to feed indifferently on any salt- 

 marsh plants of the Natural Order Chenopodiacece, having been found 

 on Salicornia herhacea, Siiceda fruficosa and maritima {Glienopodium 

 maritimum, Sowerby), Beta maritima and Atriplex portulacoides. 

 Mr. Threlfall mentions (Ent. Mo Mag., xv, p. S9) having bred this 

 species from larvae "mining the leaves of Aster tripoliiim.'" Should this 

 be confii-med, I should suspect the larva to be altogether polyphagous. 



Mountsfield, Lewisham : 



JIarch lot/), 1883. 



