THE AUSTRALIAN GELECHIANAB 
(LEPIDOPTERA). 
By A. JEFFERIS TURNER, M.D., F.E.S. 
(Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, 29th October, 
1919.) 
The Gelechianae are rather a difficult group, and I 
have only lately studied them seriously. With the help 
of a small number of species named for me by Mr. Meyrick,, 
but especially by the study of Mr. Meyrick’s admirable 
revision (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1904, p. 255), of which 
I cannot speak too highly, I have found the genera not so 
hard to understand as might have been expected. 
Moths of this sub-family are mostly small, sometimes: 
minute, mostly of dull and inconspicuous colouring (the 
genus Crocanthes is an exception), and of very retired 
habits, so that isolated examples of new species have 
occurred rather frequently, and until the larve have been 
discovered, many species will remain poorly represented in 
collections. The species of Crocanthes, Dichomeris, and 
some others are usually abundant, and some species are 
taken freely at light. One species Dichomeris capnitis, 
Meyr., sometimes occurs in countless millions. 1 came upon 
one of these swarms near Gympie, Queensland, on April 
15th, 1906. For twenty yards in length and several yards 
in breadth along the bank of a small creek the eucalyptus 
saplings, some of considerable size, were so covered with. 
moths that not only was their foliage completely blackened, 
but the saplings themselves were actually bowed with the 
weight. On beating a sapling with a stick it recovered its 
