NEW BRITISH SPECIES. 91 



HoMCEOSOMA SENECioNis, H. Vaughan (Fig. 2). 



To Mr. Howard Yaughan we are indebted for this in- 

 teresting addition to our PliycidcB. He discovered it, toge- 

 ther with its larva, in Essex, and seeing its distinctness from 

 any other described Homoeosoma, has named it as above in 

 the "Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," vol. vii. p. 131. 

 The species would seem to be double-brooded, since the per- 

 fect insect appears in May and July, and the larva, of which 

 a description has been published from the pen of Mr. Buckler, 

 in June. 



Senecionis has the cut of nehulella, but is hardly so long 

 in the wing as that species ; it is also a smaller insect, though 

 Mr. Yaughan has shown me two diminutive specimens of 

 nehulella received from Mr. Barrett, which are certainly even 

 less — still these are exceptional. Then again a blackish -grey 

 costal dash at the outer third, and another starting obliquely 

 from near the apex, which we notice in nehulella, are wanting 

 in senecionis. 



At first sight senecionis bears considerable resemblance to 

 hincevella, but though a smaller insect, it is comparatively 

 longer in the wings, and the dotted markings are not gene- 

 rally so well expressed as in hincevella. But the great 

 character of which, no doubt, our artist will give a good 

 account, is the straight oblique subterminal dotted linew^hich 

 runs nearly parallel with the apical margin. This character 

 alone would separate it from hincevella or any other Ho- 

 moeosoma. 



The larva mines in the stems of ragwort, pushing out 

 little heaps of fi'ass, which are agglomerated together by 

 webs. 



Dr. Staudinger informs us that, when in Spain, he bred 

 Homoeosoma nehulella freely from Senecio Jacohcea. 



