318 f J,,1 y> 



HAS ANY ONE LATELY BRED GELECHIA (LAMPEOTES) 

 ATEELLA ? 



A Query propounded by H. T. STAINTON, F.E.S. 



The larvae of this insect were first detected as far bach as the 

 year 1866, by Mr. W. E. Jeffrey, then living at Saffron Walden. 



The larvae were burrowing down the stems of Hypericum, and the 

 result of their thus burrowing was that the upper parts of the plant 

 drooped, and, so to speak, " hung out flags of distress." This to the 

 observant entomological eye is an unfailing sign that something is 

 there at work. 



Mr. Jeffrey kindly forwarded me some of these larvse, which I 

 duly noted at the time in the Entomologist's Annual for 1867, 

 pp. 21 — 23, and he also sent me bred specimens of the imago. 



I was so much under the impression, from the general appearance 

 of G-elechia atrella, that it, like so many of its allies, must feed on 

 some plant of the Order Legwminosce, that I was not at all disposed, 

 at first, to concede that these atrella could really have fed upon the 

 Hypericum, and I even propounded the question whether some larvae 

 feeding on one of the Leguminosce had not been accidently introduced 

 into the breeding-cage. 



This suggestion of mine was, however, met with tolerably con- 

 clusive evidence that no such devourer of Leguminosce had found its 

 way into the breeding-cage, and that T must really accept the stub- 

 born fact that the specimens of Gelechia atrella bred had positively 

 come from the stems of Hypericum. 



On further reflection, I consoled myself with the idea that if the 

 larva had fed on a different plant, or in a different way from what I 

 should have anticipated, the new information I had acquired was the 

 more interesting and valuable. 



Mr. Jeffrey remarked in 1866, that he had been unable to detect 

 any pupae, whence, he presumed, they underwent their change inside 

 the stems. On my suggesting that the dead stems should be examined, 

 to see if the empty pupa-shins were really there, I learnt that the 

 old stems had been unfortunately thrown away, so that the discovery 

 of the very peculiar mode of pupation of this insect remained to be 

 made at a later date. 



In August, 1867, in a box of insects sent to me for determination 

 by the Hon. T. De Grey (now Lord Walsinghain), I found a fine 

 specimen of Gelechia atrella, so fine that I suspected it must have 

 been bred. On enquiring the history of this specimen I received the 



