Tineide, and Pterophoride of South Africa. 241 
Kopfknochen, wovon noch Reste am Horne sitzen, als 
das eigentliche Futter an.” 
It is probable that this unpublished correspondence 
was the cause of Mr. Stainton’s suggestion to Mr. 
Simmons, in 1878, that the large Tinea found in his 
conservatory at Poplar was possibly a horn-feeder. 
I have in my own collection a pair of horns of Kolus 
ellipsiprymnus, given to me by the late Col. Harvey 
Tower, which are bored by the larve of this species, the 
substance of the horn itself being visibly perforated in 
several places up to one-fourth from the base; the pupa- 
cases protruded from the holes when I received them. 
The small portion of the skull still attached to the. 
horns is not perforated, but has the appearance of 
having been much exposed, conveying the impression 
that the specimen may have been obtained by purchase, 
rather than killed in the course of Col. Tower’s hunting 
expedition. I have also a very old pair of horns of an 
Indian buffalo, perforated in the same manner. 
I am informed by Lieut.-Col. the Hon. Wenman Coke, 
who has shot very large numbers of various species of 
horned animals in South Africa, that he has never seen 
the horn of a living animal perforated by one of these 
larve, although almost every dead horn that has been 
exposed to the open air is found to be attacked by them. 
He has not observed any traces of similar larve in the 
neighbourhood of Zanzibar or Lake Nyassa, where he 
has also hunted; but it seems extremely probable that 
it may also occur there. 
Colonel Coke is most confident that the larva never 
attacks a living animal; he assures me that had this 
been the case it could not have escaped his observation. 
Mr. Roland Trimen, to whom also I have spoken on 
the subject, concurs in expressing great doubt as to the 
correctness of the theory that the larva feeds in the 
horns of living animals; on the other side, we have the 
strong evidence of Dr. Fitzgibbon; and as the fibrous 
substance of the horn undergoes little or no change at 
the death of the animal, there seems to be no reason 
why the moth should not deposit its eggs when the 
living animal is at rest, nor why the larva should not 
penetrate the horn; but the question must be considered 
to be “‘ sub judice.”’ 
Mr. Walker has described this species under the name 
of Tinea lucidella. 
