2 



it was judged to have been in the bags for at least a couple of 

 years ; it was sent direct from Brandon to London, and the larvae 

 were detected in it on its being unpacked immediately on arrival. 

 Larvae were also found in bags of rabbit hair received at the same 

 time from the same place. 



The hair, when I received it, appeared to contain a good 

 many larvae, and probably I should have reared a larger 

 number of specimens had I not allowed it to become dry, for 

 I can assign no other reason for finding some of the smaller 

 larvae dead and dried up, unless perhaps their larger brethren 

 had bitten them, a possibility of which I am by no means 

 sure. So far as I could detect, the larvae had nothing in their 

 appearance to distinguish them from many other Tineas, being 

 in colour whitish with light-brown heads. They were of sluggish 

 habits, often remaining in one spot for several days, gnawing the 

 hair in their immediate neighbourhood, and leaving a quantity of 

 fine dust and frass. I was not able to detect any larval tube or 

 gallery such as is made by some of the nearly allied species"^, but on 

 becoming full-fed, the larv;B made exceedingly tough cocoons among 

 the hair, of which a considerable quantity was attached. In the 

 cocoons they changed to light brown shining pupje, almost 

 iridescent in their brightness; and, on the imagines emerging, the 

 pupa-skins were left protruding fully half their length from the 

 cocoons. 



The history of 'Tinea palleRcentella is interesting. The species 

 appears to have been unknown to science until the year 1851, when 

 it was described by Stainton from a specimen taken under conditions 

 that suggested the probability of it being an imported species, yet 

 all attempts to trace it as occurring commonly at any time on the 

 Continent of Europe or even in America have failed, and, indeed, so 

 far as I have been able to ascertain, comparatively little appears to 

 be known of it on the Continent, and nothing at all in America up 

 to the present time. Its history, taken in chronological order, may 

 be set out as follows : — 



1851. — Stainton described Tinea paUeseeJitella from a specimen 

 "taken by Mr. Gregson in the streets of Liverpool (perhaps 

 imported)" ("A Supplementary Catalogue of British 2"inei(hi and 

 l^ternpJioridtr," p. 2). 



1854. — Stainton repeated his description with the remark : " The 

 above description is copied from my " Sup. Cat." ; not having had an 

 opportunity of again examining this species, of which I believe two 

 or three other specimens have occurred in Liverpool" (" Insecta 

 Brit. Lep. Tineina," p. 34). He also mentions it as occurring in 



'■^ Mr. Sennett tells me that he did find what appeared to be a piece of larval 

 gallery in one of the bags of hair, but as a couple of specimens of (Kcaphora 

 pneudospretella also were reared from the hair, the gallery was no doubt made 

 by that species. 



