March, 1832.] 217 



A FEW WOEDS ABOUT EPISCRNIA (ANERASTIA) FARRELLA. 

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



In my '"Attempt at a systematic catalogue of the British Tineidre 

 and Pterophoridse," published in 1849, the following note occurs (at 

 p. 4) after the synonymy of Anerastia lotella : 



"Mr. Doubleday and Mr. Curtis have each a specimen apparently distinct 

 from this, with a pure white streak from the base to the apex near the costa, the 

 costa itself beyond the middle being dark. They were taken at the lighthouse at 

 Lowestoft." 



The following year, 1850, John Curtis published in the Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History (second series, vol. y, pp. .110 — 121) 

 some " Notes upon the smaller British Moths, with descriptions of 

 some nondescript or imperfectly characterized species." Amongst 

 these notes there appears (at p. 114) a description of Anerastia 

 Farrella. 



Mr. Curtis adds, " For a specimen of this pretty and distinct 

 species I am indebted to Mr. H. F. Farr : two or three were taken at 

 the North Lighthouse, Lowestoft, the beginning of June, 1840." 



In 1851, appeared my "Supplementary Catalogue of the British 

 Tineidae and Pterophoridse," in which (at p. 1) Anerastia Farrella is 

 introduced, with a reference to the Curtisian description and to the 

 note in my previous Catalogue, and there is added : 



" This species has also occurred on the coast near Deal." 



Fourteen years elapsed before any further notice of this species 

 appeared, when A. Constant described it under the name of Mi/elois 

 Lafauryella, from a single female, which he had taken in the sandy 

 department of Landes, during an excursion he had made there in 

 company with Mons. Lafaury ; this description is in the Annales de 

 la Societe Entomologique de France, 1865, p. 189, and is accompanied 

 by a figure of the insect, pi. 7, f. 1. 



Four years later we learn that this insect, which had been found 

 on the sandy coasts of Norfolk, Kent, and Western France, was also 

 no rarity on the shores of the Baltic ; for in the Stettin, entom. Zeit., 

 for 1869 (p. 289), Baron von Nolcken wrote as follows: — 



" Near Stettin there occurs an Epischnia, which the Lepidopterists there have 

 collected in numbers, and have distributed under the name of Lafauryella. Lately 

 Dr. Schleich wrote to me that He it Miller had likewise discovered the larva? in the 

 flowers of Anthyllis vulneraria ; probably in a short time we shall now learn the 

 entire natural history of this species. The name of Lafauryella was, as they told 

 me at Stettin, given to it by Constant, but I have neglected to ascertain where he 

 described it — but it has another and probably older name, which seems to be quite 



