50 Mr. A. G. Butler on Heterocerom Lepidoptera 



but at the same time his descriptions and figures are so 

 good as to leave little to be desired on that head : one 

 thing alone troubles me, and that is the marvellous 

 elasticity of his genus Cryptolechia, which, as it now 

 stands, appears to combine the characters of Depressaria, 

 Hypercallia, and not a few undescribed (though surely 

 sufficiently distinct) genera. I am aware that the genus 

 is divided by its author into groups, to some of which he 

 has given distinctive names, thus introducing a tri- 

 nomial system ; but, with all due deference to an author 

 who has paid considerably more attention to Micro - 

 Lepidoptera than it has been possible for me to do, it 

 would, I think, be decidedly preferable to raise these 

 groups to the rank of genera : the characters given to 

 distinguish typical Cryptolechia from Machvmia do not 

 seem to be strictly adhered to, for if ' Wicklergestalt und 

 scharfer Vorderfliigelspitze ' represent the prominent 

 characteristics of Cryptolechia, C. tortricella should be 

 referred to Machimia, and C. ochracea and fasciatipedella 

 to Cryptolechia ; as for C. fenestella, I cannot see why it 

 should be separated from Hypercallia, with which, in 

 spite of its more slender and longer palpi and narrower 

 wings, it agrees fairly well in neuration and style of 

 coloration ; in pattern and form of wing it comes nearer 

 to Walker's H. igniferella than to H. citrinalis. 



Following Professor Zeller's own definition, which 

 corresponds with his original description in referring the 

 species having the apex of the primaries acute to Crypto- 

 lechia* I transfer C. ochracea and fasciatipedella to this 

 genus. The apex of the wing is not only acute, but 

 subfalcate, whereas the type of Machimia, according to 

 Stainton, has "the hind margin obliquely pointed." 

 Unhappily we do not possess an example of M. tentori- 

 ferella, but the C. carnea of Zeller, and other species 

 referred by this author to Machimia, show no trace of 

 falcation ; C. notimacula has, moreover, a rounded apex 

 and palpi sufficiently characteristic to distinguish it from 

 either genus, though bringing it nearer to Tortricopsis ; 

 in my opinion it would be better located under Stenoma, 

 some of the species of which genus show a similar form 

 of win" and style of coloration ; the remarkable palpi, 

 however (see Zeller's figure), which somewhat closely 



* See Lord Walsin^hani's observations on the genus in Trans. 

 Ent. Soc, Loncl., 1881, pp. 253-4.' 



