52 ' [August, 



EEVISION OF THE BRITISH SPECIES OF PHYCITID^ AND 

 GALLERID^. 



BY E. L. EAGONOT, 



President of the Entomological Society of France. 



(^Concluded from page 32.) 



Nephopteryx ahieiella, S.Y. — This insect lias long, but wrongly, 

 been called ahietella, for in tbe Vienna Catalogue it is simply men- 

 tioned as the pine moth, " Tannen Schabe, T. ahietellaj' which cannot 

 constitute a description, so that we must retain the name of decuriella, 

 given to the insect by Hiibner. 



Under the name of ahietella, two species are confounded ; the 

 true decwriella, Hb. {ahletella, S.Y.), Zincken, and the syJvestrella of 

 Eatzeburg, which are quite different insects, though they resemble 

 one another very much. Decuriella is always of a uniform grey 

 colour, and the larva is reddish-brown, with a double paler dorsal line 

 and three fine yellowish lines on each side ; head and second segment 

 reddish-brown ; it feeds in the cones and decayed wood of pines. 



SyJvestrella, on the contrary, is a larger insect, with a large patch 

 of reddish-brown before the first line. The larva is pinkish- white, 

 changing to greenish, without any lines ; the head is reddish-brown, 

 the second segment brown-black, ordinary spots very distinct. It lives 

 in the trunks of old firs, under the bark, causing abundant exudations 

 of resin. 



Sylvestrella is well figured by Herrich-Schiiffer as splendidella, 

 fig. 43, not fig. 44, which is Euzopliera pinyuis. It does not appear to 

 have been noticed as occurring in England. 



The genus Dioryctria has been created by Zeller on account of 

 the peculiar form of the antennae. The species of the genus appear 

 to feed only on Coniferce, and have great a family likeness. 



Neplwpteryx rohorella, Tab. — This insect was first noticed by 

 Schiffermiiller and Denis in their Catalogue, as follows :—" 14, 

 Hageichen-Sehabe. T. roborella'' so that, like ahietella, the name of 

 rohorella must be left aside and re-placed by that of spissicella, given 

 to the insect in 1777 by rabricius. It was subsequently named by 

 Haworth leyatea, and by Stephens leyatella and cristella. 



As already observed, spissicella is the type of the family Pliyci- 

 tidcB, and of the genus Fhycita. The narrowness of the fore- wings, 

 the length of the veins, the shortness of the cell of the hind-wings, 

 the large size of the "knot" of the antennae, distinguish the genus 

 Fliycita from Nephopteryx, and the species of Fhycita have very 

 similar markings. 



The larva of spissicella feeds on oak, and is well known. 



