NEW BRITISH SPECIES IN 1857. 91 



Gelechia arundinetella, Zeller. 

 Alls anticis angustis dilute griseo-brunneis, maculis oppositis 

 pone medium obsoletis dilutioribus, jmncto inter) ecto 

 nigro, ipunctuloque costali nigricante. 



Exp. al. 4^—5 lin. 



Head greyish-brown ; face paler. Palpi whitish above, 

 externally and the tip black. Antennae fuscous. Anterior 

 wings dull greyish-brown, with two very indistinct obliquely 

 placed pale opposite spots beyond the middle, that on the 

 costa rather posterior; between these is a minute blackish 

 spot on the disc, and beyond the costal spot is a small 

 blackish spot on the costa ; the apical portion of the wing is 

 very pointed, and is spotted all round the margins pale and 

 dark brown ; cilia pale greyish. Posterior wings pale grey, 

 with pale greyish ochreous cilia. 



This inconspicuous species was bred by Mr. Boyd, who 

 thus notices the habit of the larva (Int. ii. p. 139) -.—"The 

 larva, when young, feeds like an Elachista, mining up and 

 down the leaves of one of the large Carices (riparia ?), 

 which grows on our river banks ; as it grows older it quits 

 the first leaf and enters another, and sometimes a third, but 

 spends the greater part of its life in the last one, of which it 

 eats a large portion, and in which it spins its cocoon and 

 changes to a pupa. It is difficult to collect, for by the time 

 it is full-fed the leaf is generally withered, and the cocoon is 

 scarcely discernible. The plant generally grows in the 

 water, and the cocoon is an inch or so above the water mark. 

 The perfect insect seems shy, and I have only succeeded in 

 taking one; my first appeared on the 22nd of June." 



Professor Zeller, who sent me the species in 1850, says, — 

 "found last year amongst Arnndo Phragmites and Scirpus 

 lacustris, not scarce at the end of July, but mostly wasted 



