STENOPTILIA GKAPHODACTYLA. 245 



Stenoptilia graphodactyla, a species of Alucitid new to the British 



fauna. 



By Paymaster-in-Chief GERVASE F. MATHEW, E.N., F.E.S. 



I have quite recently bred from marsh gentian (Gentiana pneumo' 

 nanthe) a few imagines of a plume which appear to me to be different 

 from Adkinia zophodactyltis, to which, of our British species, it seemed to 

 be most closely allied, and which I now learn from Mr. Tuttis Stenoptilia 

 graphodactyla , and near to var. pneumonanthes, Schleich. The credit of 

 the discovery of the species, w^hatever it may be, is due to my wife. 

 She collects plants, and, among a number of specimens she was drying,, 

 that had been obtained near Wimborne, was a head of marsh gentian 

 containing several flowers. After they had been pressing for several 

 days, under a considerable weight, she examined them to see if they 

 required placing between dry sheets, and was not best pleased to 

 discover that some of the flowers had been much eaten by a couple of 

 little larvfe, which looked none the worse for having been subjected tO' 

 such pressure. She brought them to me as she thought they might 

 be something good, as they were feeding upon rather an uncommon 

 plant, and I at once saw they were the larvae of some kind of plume. 

 I consulted the only book I had with me. Leech's British Pyralides,. 

 but could find no gentian-feeder, but thought the larvfe might possibly 

 be that of Adkinia zophodactylas, which feeds on Erythraea, an allied 

 plant. This was about the middle of August, and these two larvae 

 were then nearly full-grown. I placed them in a large glass-topped 

 box with some flowers of gentian, into which they crawled, but in a. 

 day or two they came out, spun pads of silk on the glass, and, in about- 

 48 hours changed to pupae, hanging head downwards. The first moth 

 appeared on August 29th, and the second on the 31st, and I noticed 

 that they were not a bit like the figure of A. zophodactylus in Leech's- 

 book. These larvfe appeared to be rare, for, after several days' careful 

 search among the gentian, which itself was by no means plentiful, I 

 could only find about a dozen, and two or three more were found 

 among the drjdng plants. On September 1st I netted one of the 

 perfect insects, and on the 4th two more, which were beaten from 

 mixed herbage in the locality where the gentian occurred. On this 

 latter date I also took three pale brown plumes, much the worse for 

 wear, which I thought might be A. zophodactyhis, but proved to be 

 A. bipunctidactyla. The following description of the larva was taken. 

 on August 25th : — 



" Pale green, with a darker green dorsal line, below which is another dark 

 subdorsal line, bordered on each side by a pale greenish-white line, the lower edge 

 of which is rather indented ; spiracles minute, white, in a black ring ; the anal 

 segments somewhat attenuated ; the 2nd segment much smaller than the others ; 

 head pale yellowish-brown, clouded with darker reticulations ; the whole surface 

 covered with a pile of short pale brownish hairs, with longer ones in groups of two, 

 three, or four, arranged along the sides and back. In some larvffi the dorsal stripe 

 is tinged with purple, and the general colour a yeUowish-green. Pups greenish- 

 yellow." 



I may add that there was no Erythraea growing where these plume 

 larvffi were taken. The last moth was bred on September 20th. 



OcTOBEE 15th, 1906. 



