ooNrrR[Burroxs to hestory of the British pterophori. 33 



PlatyptlUa trlgonodactyliis ; but I am not at all satisfied with iny 

 present knowledge of this species, and shall feel greatly obliged 

 to anyone who will kindly favour me with a few full-grown larvae 

 of the coltsfoot-feeding "plume" from any locality, during the 

 season. Mr. Sang was kind enough to send larva3 from Dar- 

 lington, but I did not have an opportunity of seeing them, as I 

 had written to Mr. Carrington that I had found coltsfoot-feeding 

 "plume" larvae in North Devon, and it was not considered 

 necessary to forward other examples. 



Platyptilia, Hub. 

 Zetterstedtii, Zell. 



Imago.— Expanse, 10-14 lines. Fore wings, ground colour whitish 

 ochreous, with a few brown scales scattered over the disk of the wing. A 

 dark brown triangular mark is seated on the costa just beyond the middle, 

 the apex of whicli is near the digital juncture. On the costa, between this 

 triangle and the base of wing, is a series of dark brown (in some specimens 

 approaching black) spots of small size, and often so closely placed as 

 to give the appearance of a line. The posterior edge of triangle is 

 margined with a dash of the ground colour, and beyond this both digits are 

 suffused with paler brown, in some examples almost black on the costa, 

 and intersected by a line of the ground colour running parallel with the 

 hind margin ; the hind margin itself is distinctly outlined with black. 

 Along the inner margin, a short distance from the base, is an oblique dash 

 of dark brown, and a httle outside this, but nearer the costa, is a small dark 

 brown spot ; there is also a patch of dark brown on the middle of inner 

 margin. Fringes white, with tufts of black scales on the middle of inner 

 margin, at the angle of inner digit, and a smaller one between those two. 

 In strongly-marked examples the tip of inner, and angle of outer, digits 

 have black tufts also. The tip of the outer digit is pointed, but scarcely 

 produced. Hind wings pale brown ; fringes hardly paler, except those of 

 third feather, which are white from the base to the tuft of black scales in 

 the middle. Head and thorax same colour as fore wings. Abdominal 

 junction paler. 



Larva. — Unknown to me. Wallengren says that it feeds in the stems 

 of Senecio nemorensis (not a British plant) ; and Heinemans gives SoUdago 

 virgaurea as the food-plant. Plenty of this latter grew in the woods where 

 the insect occurred in North Devon ; therefore in this country we might 

 expect to find the larvae feeding on the latter plant. 



It may be that I did not stumble across the head-quarters of 

 this insect, and that the few examples I met with were stragglers ; 



F 



