31 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH 

 PTEROFHORL 



By Richard South. 



(Continued from vol. xiv., p. 77.) 



It has been suggested to me that in drawing up my list of the 

 British Pterophori (Entom. xiv. 50) I did not pay sufficient atten- 

 tion to the priority of synonyms. I admit that possibly such may 

 have been the case, but confess that I feel greater interest in the 

 investigation of habits of the group, than in working up the ento- 

 mological literature of the remote past to discover who was, or 

 was not, the original nomenclator of this or that species. In this 

 I may evince a lack of scientific precision, but I submit that 

 although the priority of nomenclature is of great importance, still 

 it is not the first matter to be considered in the study of any 

 group of natural history objects. Let us become thoroughly 

 acquainted with the objects themselves, then we can proceed to 

 discuss the question of priority of synonyms. 



In the present paper I shall speak of the "plumes" captured 

 by me in North Devon last season, and in so doing will adopt the 

 generic nomenclature as given in my list (Entom. xiv. p. 75), thus 

 anticipating possible objections on this score. 



Platyptilia, Hiib. 

 Trigonodactylus, Haw. 

 Gonodactyla, W. V. ? 

 Imago.— Expanse, 10-12 lines. Fore wings, ground colour whity 

 brown, sparingly sprinkled with brownish scales. The most prominent 

 markings are a brown triangular blotch on the costa, the apex of which is 

 situated just before the digital juncture. The posterior edge of this triangle 

 is margined with whitish, most conspicuous on the costa ; beyond this is a 

 brown "linear mark, also on the costa, followed by a narrow whitish line 

 running from costa to inner margin through the digits, and parallel with 

 the hin'd margin. Fringes pale grey, with a tuft of black scales, in middle 

 of inner margin, also at tip and angle of inner digit ; but these two last are 

 not conspicuous. The tip of outer digit is not produced, and hardly pointed. 

 Hind wings grey-brown ; third feather with a tuft of black scales in the 

 cilia of its inner margin ; between this tuft and the base of the feather the 

 cilia are whitish. Head and thorax same colour as fore wings. 



