6 OBSERVATIONS ON TINEINA. 



by the Hon. Thomas De Grey (Ent. Mo. Maor. v. p. 105), 

 who remarks that amongst the series of Subpropinquella that 

 he bred from the thistle-feeding larvae, one specimen ap- 

 peared with the conspicuous daik head and thorax supposed 

 to be distinctive of Depressaria rhodochrella. Mr. De Grey 

 adds, " As there was nothing in the box in which my larvae 

 were kept but thistle leaves, I think we must be satisfied 

 that D. rhodochrella is only a variety of D. subpropin- 

 quella.''^ 



When Ilerr v. Heinemann was working through the 

 Tine'ma foi- his forthcoming work on that group of insects, 

 he wrote to me in October, 1868, asking for a sight of a 

 number of our English spiscies, and amongst those which I 

 sent him was Depressaria subpropinquella. In his then 

 letter he remarked that he found larvae of a Depressaria 

 on thistles, from which he had expected to breed D. sub- 

 propinquella, but that some of the specimens had a dark 

 head and thorax, and others were without this peculiarity. 

 After he had seen our British D. subjiropinquella, he wrote 

 to me more fully on this same subject: — "I am not clear 

 about Depressaria subpropinquella. I have here two species ; 

 of one of them I have obtained three specimens in three dif- 

 ferent years. The larva feeds on Centaurea jacea. The 

 imago resembles Sfaudinger's Spanish D. subluiella, of which 

 the larva feeds on Centaurea aspei^a. Last summer I found 

 larvae on a thistle, which I supposed to be those of D. sub' 

 propinquella, and the imago which I reared from them agreed 

 with specimens T had received from Dr. Rossler and others 

 as Subpropinquella. All the larvge I found were on two 

 thistle-plants close together in a corn-field. Amongst the 

 specimens bred two were distinguished by a black thorax 

 and by brighter-coloured anterior wings, which bore a darker, 

 almost black, central blotch, and agreed quite well with 



