Tineida, and Pterophoridce of South Africa. 241 



Kopfknochen, wovon noch Eeste am Home 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It is probable that this unpublished correspondence 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 

 ellipsiprymmis, given to me by the late Col. Harvey 

 Tower, which are bored by the larvae 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 

 larvae, 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 larvae 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. Koland 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. 



