86 Mr. H. T. Stainton on 



XII. On Ornix Meleagripennella and its Allies; a Group 

 of Lepidoptera, Family Tineidse. By H. T. Stainton, 

 Esq. 



Till the appearance of the second volume of the Linnsea Ento- 

 mologica, in which Herr Zeller described Ornix angul'tferella, I 

 believe there was no suspicion that with Meleagripennella were 

 confounded several very closely allied species. Haworth, it is 

 true, had in his " Lepidoptera Britannica," described at p. 532 

 Gracillaria nebulea — " alis anticis cinereis, nebulis magnis nigris, 

 costa fasciis nigris, strigis albidis interrupta," which is manifestly 

 one of this group ; and at p. 578 he has Tinea meleagripennella — 

 " alis cinereis apice punctilio ocellari atro," which he places after 

 Cramerella, observing " prceccdente minor et angustior ;" but it 

 appears to have been known to him from only a single specimen, 

 and as little information is to be gained from his description, and 

 he does not attempt to compare it with his Nebulea, we may 

 safely consider that Haworth was acquainted with this group 

 only under the name of Nebulea. Mr. Stephens has certainly two 

 descriptions in his Illustrations, vol. iv. p. 364, applicable to this 

 group, viz. Nebulea and Meleagripennella ; but these species are 

 not compared with each other, and there is nothing to identify 

 them with any species with certainty. His Nebulea may have 

 been either the Meleagripennella or the Anglicella of this paper, 

 and his Meleagripennella may have been either the Anglicella or 

 the Torquillella of this paper. Hiibner's figure of Meleagripennella 

 No. 189, is much too coarse to be identified with any species. 

 Treitschke's description of Meleagripennella, vol. ix. 2, p. 209, 

 and Duponchel's, supp. vol. iv. p. 467, pi. 86, f. 4, are both un- 

 satisfactory and are not sufficiently precise to be identified with 

 any of the species I am about to enumerate. I have now brought 

 the history of the literature of this group up to the appearance in 

 1847 of Zeller's Monograph, in the second volume of the Linnaea 

 Entomologica, where we are first informed that there is a species 

 very closely allied to Meleagripennella. The mere statement of 

 this fact, having had the effect of causing Entomologists to ex- 

 amine their specimens in order to try and detect Anguliferella 

 lurking in their collections, has resulted in the discovery of at 

 least six additional species. In my monograph of Argyromiges, 

 in the Zoologist, I described at p. 21 62 one of this group, under the 



