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XIII. A few Words on the Synonymy of h?Lverna. Langiella. 

 By H. T. Stainton, Esq., F.L.S. 



[Read 7th October, 1861.] 



Few insects are more conspicuous and striking than Laverna Lan- 

 giella, but few have had a more embarrassed and complex 

 synonymy. My first acquaintance with the insect arose from an 

 un-named specimen in the collection of James Francis Stephens ; 

 this was found to agree very well with Hiibner's figure of Lan- 

 giella, but, on referring to Treitschke's description, I noticed the 

 words "die Fiihler schwarz und weiss geringelt ;" and as the insect 

 before me had unicolorous dark antennae, I did not venture to 

 pronounce it identical with the Langiella of Treitschke, and there- 

 fore described it in my " Catalogue of British Tineidse" as Nivei- 

 punctella, n.sp. Subsequently I ascertained that our insect was 

 undoubtedly the continental Langiella, and not a new species 

 closely allied to it, and that the discrepancy in Treitschke's 

 description was an error. Schlager in the "Tauschvereinsbericht" 

 for 1847 had recorded the habit of the larva, and in my volume 

 of the " Insecta Britannica" I drew attention to this, calling the 

 insect by the Hiibnerian name of Langiella, 



Unfortunately errors are not altogether disposed of when we 

 discover our own mistakes and correct them, for others may 

 already have adopted them and may not feel disposed lightly to 

 part with them. I was accordingly horrified to find figured on 

 Herrich-SchiifFer's 118th plate of Tineides, as two distinct species, 

 Langiella and Niveipunciella. The text, however, made the sub- 

 ject still more perplexing, as the figure of Niveipunciella was 

 referred to as the representation of Ijongiella, and the figure of 

 Langiella was referred to as the representation of a new species, 

 Fulicella of Heyden, having a slight difference in the form of the 

 white spot. 



Frey in his Monograph of the genus Laverna, in the 14th vol. of 

 the " Linnaea Entomologica," places Fulicella after Langiella as a 

 species unknown to him and rather problematical. 



Fortunately Von Heyden was able to come to the rescue, and 

 by a short notice in Herrich-SchafFer's " Correspondenzblatt," 

 vol. i. p. 22, to explain the origin of his Fulicella. This was briefly 

 as follows : — 



In his copy of Hiibner the figure of Langiella did not agree 

 well with the insects he had bred from Epilobium, aud hence he 



