February, 1885.] ]^93 



PAN C ALIA LEUWENH0I:KELLA AND LATREILLELLA ; ARE 

 THEY THE SEXES OF ONE SPECIES? 



BY H. T. STAINTON", F.E.S. 



It is so long since I have met with either of these insects, that I 

 am anxious to hear what are the observations of those who have re- 

 cently taken either of them in any plenty. 



It would be especially desirable to hear from any who may have 

 bad the good luck to meet with specimens in copula. 



Thirty years ago, in my volume of the "Insecta Britannica," I 

 [issigned to Latreillella entirely dark antennse, without any suggestion 

 of a difference in the sexes ; and, in like manner, to LeuioenJioeJcella 

 antennse with a broad white ring before the apex, again with no allu- 

 sion to any difference in the sexes. 



In the 2nd volume of the " Manual," published five years later 

 (1859), I say of Latreillella, " antennse of the ^ entirely dark fuscous ; 

 of the $ with a broad white ring before the tip :" and of LeuwenhoeJcella 

 'the antennse have a white ring in both sexes." 



I have now no recollection whence I obtained the notion that in 

 Latreillella the antennse differed according to the sex. 



In Southern Europe a third species occurs, Pancalia nodosella, 

 md in that the ^ has the antennse entirely dark, but the ? shows the 

 rt^hite ring before the tip, this white ring being preceded by some long 

 )lack scales, which cause the antennse to have a singularly incrassated 

 ippearance — as it were knotted — hence nodosella. 

 I My excellent friend, Heer P. C. T. Snellen, is of opinion that he 

 neets with this nodosella in Holland, always in company with La- 

 reillella, of which he thinks it is the female. But, further than this, 

 je thinks that our old friend Leuwenhoekella, which we seem to have 

 mown from our boyhood, consists only of worn specimens of nodosella, 

 )f which the thickening scales on the antennse have vanished whilst 

 he insect was actively on the wing. 



Heer Snellen had broached this idea to the late Professor Zeller, 

 yho refused to entertain it, saying, " that he had perfect specimens of 

 he ? , which did not show any traces of the thickening on the an- 

 ennse so characteristic of nodosella.^' Heer Snellen, in quoting this 

 me, appeals to our collections in this country, for he says, " I feel 

 lonfident that when the English specimens in your cabinets are care- 

 ully examined, the justness of my observation will be proved." 

 : My own series of this genus certainly contains no specimens in 

 ny way approaching to nodosella, though possibly such may lurk 



