AcentrojHis. 123 



discovered the earlier stages, he said the pupa and pupa- 

 case were those of a moth. In 1857, Hagen pronounced 

 the insect to be truly Lepidopterous ; and Newman 

 arrived at the same conclusion (Zool. p. 5629). In the 

 'Entomologist's Annual' for 1858, Stainton figured Acen- 

 tropus niveus, as " having been finally handed over by 

 the Neuropterists to the Lepidopterists." In the same 

 year Kolenati again considered the question, and treated 

 the insect as an indubitable Lepidopteron. In 1859, the 

 genus was inserted in Stainton's 'Manual of British 

 Moths,' but was omitted from Doubleday's 'List of British 

 Lepidoptera.' In 1860, Moschler described iva. Acentropus 

 latipennis, and sent it to Herrich-Schiiffer to be figured 

 with other new Micro-Lepidoptera ; in the following year 

 Herrich-Schilfier figured it as such, and Staudinger and 

 Wocke included the genus in their Catalogue of European 

 Lepidoptera. 



In 1861, Scott renewed the enquiiy ''Is Acentropus 

 niveus a moth ? or does it belong to the Phrygauidce — 

 genus Ghimarra?" M'Lachlan denied that it was a 

 Chimarra, but seemed at that time undecided whether it 

 Was Lepidopterous or Trichopterous, perhaps near 8eri- 

 costoma. Newman again expressed doubt, and demanded 

 further investigation. In 1862, Cooke again enquired, 

 " Does it belong to the Lepidoptera or the Phryga- 

 neina ? " inclining to the former view ; the effect, how- 

 ever, of his discussion, was to make Newman retract his 

 "rash guess"* that the insect was Lepidopterous, and 

 " to leave the question as far off a solution as ever." 



In 1863, Brown devoted a chapter in 'The Natural 

 History of Tutbury ' to the genus Acentropus ; as already 

 mentioned, he had discovered the larva and pupa, and 

 founding his conclusion mainly on the primary stages, 

 he considered it as no longer admitting of doubt that 

 the genus belongs to the Lepidoptera. Haliday also 

 (according to Brown) regarded the pupa and pupa-case 



* One would suppose, from this expression, that Newman had himself 

 been the originator of the idea that Acentropus was Lepidopterous. In 

 truth, however, his " rash guess " was arrived at from an examination of 

 specimens transmitted by Brown (see Zool. 1857, p. 5629), whilst, for 

 more than twenty years previously, the Lepidopterous view had (as we 

 have seen) been advocated by Westwood, Kolenati, Walker, Brown, and 

 Hagen successively. 



