THE 



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^> VOLUME XXV. Jlfy 



COLEOPRORA FR1SCHELLA, L. (= C. TRIFOLII, CURTIS), VERSUS 

 C. MELILOTELLA, SCOTT. 



BY EUSTACE R. BANKES, M.A., F.E.S. 



For some time past I had been quite convinced that the records 

 of the capture of Coleophora Frischella in Britain referred in reality 

 to the species which had been more recently described as new (Entom. 

 Weekly Intelligencer, viii, 108 ; Tr. Ent. Soc. Lond., n. s. v, 408, pi. 

 xvii, fig. 1), under the name of C. melilotella, and I had imagined that 

 the true continental C. Frischella had never occurred with us; but, 

 while trying to work out this idea, a new conviction has forced itself 

 upon me, namely, that C. melilotella, Scott, is identical with the conti- 

 nental C. Frischella, L., of which the name trifolii, Curtis, is already 

 recognised as a synonym. 



The first specimens captured in Britain were taken by Mr. J. C. 

 Dale, at Charmouth, and the Isle of Portland, " on trefoil flowers," on 

 July 11th and 14th, 1831, and were described and figured by Curtis 

 in his " British Entomology," folio 391, under the name of Coleophora 

 trifolii. Mr. C. W. Dale, of Glanville's Wootton, still has in his 

 collection the specimens captured by his father, and, on examining 

 these, we found them to be absolutely identical with the insect now 

 known as C. melilotella, which occurs plentifully amongst its food- 

 plant, Melilotas officinalis, both at Charmouth and Portland. A third 

 locality, viz., the Isle of Wight, is given in Stainton's " Manual," and 

 there also G. melilotella and its food-plant occur freely. 



The localities given by Stephens in his " Illustrations," Haust. iv, 

 p. 284 (published in 1834), are Ripley and Hertford, and his words 

 are : " Taken rather plentifully on the flowers of the trefoil in July, 

 1827, at Ripley ; I have since captured it at Hertford." 



Perhaps, to some people, the words " on the flowers of the trefoil," 

 used by both Dale and Stephens, may at first sight present a difficulty, 

 because C. melilotella always frequents the flowers of the melilot, which, 

 in recent botanical works, is not classed as a trefoil. But in the older 

 works we find that the melilot is invariably placed in the genus 

 Trifolium, as the following extracts will show : — 



A 



June, 1888. 



