268 



LLOYD S NATURAL HISTORY. 



two abstracts quoted above, which, though incidentally referred 

 to by Poey and Westwood, escaped notice in Hagen's " Bib- 

 liotheca Entomologica." I therefore quote the abstract from 

 the "Philosophical Magazine." 



" Mr. Guilding relates that the very singular litde moth upon 

 which he establishes this genus {PetropJiihi) occurs in myriads, in 

 its larval state, on the blocks of basaltic trap that occupy the bed 

 of the river of St. Vincent. Much as it differs in its habits from 

 the majority of Lepidoptera^ one European species he considers 

 to agree with it in its ceconomy, and to be perhaps referable to 

 the sub-genus which he would separate from Botys, which, 

 from the variety of forms in which it abounds, appears to him to 

 call for division. The types in Mr. Guilding's cabinet which 

 are most remarkable, and which he incidentally enumerates 

 and describes, are Gen. i. Chloephila, Spec, lineolata, found in 

 St. Vincent's ; Gen. 2. Kamptoptcra^ Spec. fuscesce?is, rare in 

 St. Vincent's ; Gen. 3. Flmkellura, Spec, hyalinafa (Fabr. Ent. 

 Syst. III. (2), 213?) abundant in the Antilles. 



"It is the Boiys stratiotalis (Kirby & Spence, iv. 56, 74) 

 in which Mr. Guilding finds so close a resemblance to his 

 Pdrophila in many respects, that he is persuaded of their 

 near affinity, although there is a trifling difference in the 

 pupal spiracula and in the shape of the branchire. 



" The larva obtaining its food on the rocks in the stream, 

 forms silken tunnels, under which it moves in safety, without 

 danger of being carried off by the current. When at maturity 

 the larva builds a more compact habitation, which, together 

 with the metamorphosis of the insect, the author minutely 

 describes ; as well as a small Trichopterous insect found in 

 great abundance in its society, and resembling it in ceconomy. 



" Mr. Guilding thinks it probable that many of the European 

 Botydce found in fenny places, as B. levmata, sajnbucafa, &c., 

 approach to the Petrophihv^ while those in hedges and gardens 



