28 [February, 



mesophl:eps silacellus, hb., a lepidoptekous genus 



AND species new TO BRITAIN, IN SUSSEX. 

 BY EUSTACE R. BANKBS, M.A., F.E.S. 



I have great pleasure in adding to the List o£ British Tineidce 

 the pretty MesopJileps silacellus, Hb., which was taken sparingly on 

 the downs near Brighton, during June and July last, by my friend 

 Mr. A. C. Vine, who subsequently sent me some specimens for 

 determination. A comparison of these with Hiibner's and Dupon- 

 chel's figures, and then with the series in the Frey and Stainton 

 (continental) collections, proved that they were unquestionably 

 referable to this species, and it is highly satisfactory to find that one, 

 at least, of the six Palsearctic species of the genus Mesophleps is 

 indigenous to Britain. In Staudinger and Eebel's Catalogue (1901), 

 this genus, which stands between PaUodora and Ypsolophus, is 

 assigned to Herrich-Schaffer, with the reference" Hb. 1818 "inserted 

 in brackets, but it may well be attributed to Hiibner, though with the 

 approximate date " circ. 1827 " instead of " 1818," for in spite of the 

 title-page of the Yerz. bek. Schmet., being dated " 1816," it is certain 

 that the part relating to the Tineidce was not published until about 

 ten years later. Hiibner {op. cit., p. 405) characterizes Mesophleps as 

 having the shallow indentation near the middle of the costa of the 

 fore-wings marked with a dark line, but Herrich-Schaffer (Syst. 

 Bear. Schmet. Eur., v, 43) separates it more satisfactorily, and says 

 that it is only distinguished from Gelechia by the palpi, of which the 

 middle joint has sharply-pointed scales above and below, those above 

 towards the base being the longest and most erect, while the terminal 

 joint is short and slender, and springs obliquely aside from the end of 

 the middle one. 



It may be useful to add a description of this attractive species, 

 made from specimens most generously added to my collection by Mr. 

 Vine out of the very limited number that he secured. 



Antennse dirty raw sienna-brown, narrowly annulated with fuscous. Palpi with 

 the long, porrected, thickly-scaled, middle joint, whitish above and internally, dark 

 brown beneath and externally, and the slender, short, rather erect, middle joint 

 whitish, obscurely clouded with brown near the apex externally. Head whitish. 

 Thorax and tegulse pale straw-yellow. Fore-wings rather long, narrow, and of 

 nearly uniform width to the tornus, pale straw-yellow, with a black spot on the fold, 

 and two, in a line, beyond and above it on the disc ; the outer half of the costa is 

 more or less clouded with walnut-brown, and this clouding, interrupted at the apex, 

 extends irregularly along the termen, and stretches inwards so as to form a blotch 

 beneath the outer discal black spot ; cilia brownish straw-yellow (sometimes par- 



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