im.] . 243 



nella by a greyer shade o£ brown, which makes it a duller and generally 

 darker insect, but even in the lighter forms it never has the same 

 bright ochreous tint. There is sometimes a tendency to a greyish- 

 ochreous inner margin, and a central blackish streak often runs from 

 bask to apex. The larvse and modes of life are also very different, as 

 will be seen later on. 



LiTA OCELLATELLA, Stn. 



This is the prettiest species of this little group, and the only one that shares 

 with sueedella the bright pale ochreous colour, which is often the general ground- 

 colour, but is sometimes replaced by a creamy pink, or rarely bright pink,* and is 

 also often so suffused with blackish scales that very little of the ground-colour is 

 seen. The black spots (which have the same general arrangement as in sueedella) 

 are small and distinct, and often surrounded by a few scales of the ground-colour 

 without any dark ones, which gives them the ocellated appearance whence the moth 

 derives its name, but the distinguishing feature of the species is a broad pale trans- 

 verse band of the ground-colour towards the apex. This is the smallest of the group, 

 and rarely exceeds 6'", whilst it is sometimes only 5"' in expanse of wings. 



By a strange coincidence the larva also exceeds its allies in beauty. 

 This species is, I think, too distinct and well known to require 

 further attention, the larva and food-plant being also distinct from 

 those of its allies. 



There are two other species to w^hich I wish to refer, one of which 

 is that bred from Atriplex portulacoides, to which the name instahilella, 

 Dgl., appears rightly to belong ; the other from Salicornia heriacea, 

 etc., named salicornice by Hering. I take this opportunity of acknow- 

 ledging gratefully my indebtedness to Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher for 

 much valuable information concerning these species. 



LiTA INSTABILELLA, Dgl. 



I take a specimen of one of the most ordinary forms, and not the streaked var. 

 figured by Douglas (Zool., 1270, fig. 10), which is certainly rare in this neighbour- 

 hood, and also I believe elsewhere, and does not at all represent the usual forms of 

 this insect. 



Exp. alar., &" — 7"', most usual size 6J'". Costa straighter than in sueedella, 

 and tip of wing blunter. Fore-wings rather pale fuscous, with a slightly irrorated 

 appearance, arisinj^' from the fact that the scales are mostly pale at their bases, with 

 a fuscous blotch close to the toothed tip ; blackish spots arranged as in sueedella ; 

 the usual pale fascia near the hind-margin very pale greyish-ochreous, angulated, 

 distinct ; fringes greyish-ochreous with fuscous transverse lines. 



Hind-wings pale fuscous ; fringes paler, with greyish-ochreous bases. Thorax 

 and patagia like fore-wing ; head rather paler ; antennse fuscous, with a trace 



* A figure of the pink var. is given in Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Field Club, vol. xii, 

 p. 161, plate V, 1890-91. " 



