52 [March, 



it for the first time in the same year that the description was pub- 

 lished [Ent. Mo. Mag., XXVI, 261-4 (1890)]. The CEcopJiora was 

 also taken at Merton on June 18th, 1890, by Mr. J. H. Durrant, 

 flying in the sunshine in the early morning about the branches of 

 Picea cepTialonica ; it was evidently fresh from the pupa. It is re- 

 markable that although its food-plant (JJlex) is abundant in the 

 neighbourhood, my frequent search for this species, both in its 

 larval and perfect stages, has hitherto been fruitless. 



Merton Hall, Thetford : 



February, 1894. 



TEERMOBIA FURNORUM, EOVELLI, A HEAT-LOYING TSTSA- 

 NURAN, IN LONDON BAKEHOUSES. 



BY ROBERT McLACHLAN, F.R.S., &c. 



In 1884 G-. Eovelli, an Italian entomologist, published at Como, a 

 brochure on a new species of Lepiamid found in ovens. This publica- 

 tion I have never seen in the original. He proposed the name 

 Lepisma furnorum, but stated the creature would form a new genus 

 or sub-genus. 



In 1887 Grassi (Bull. Ent. Ital., vol. xix) alluded to the insect, 

 and applied to it the sub-generic name " Termophila, Eovelli," the 

 chief distinction from Lepisma being its six-jointed maxillary palpi. 

 Termophila was evidently an Italian rendering of Thermophila, there 

 being practically no letter " h " in modern Italian, and in the same 

 Bulletin, 1889 (vol. xxi), in a paper by Grassi and Eovelli combined, 

 the sub-genus is correctly given as Thermophila. 



In the " Tijdschrift voor Entomologie," vol. xxxii (1889), is, a long 

 paper on the insect, with a gigantic coloured figure, by Dr. Oudemans, 

 on its discovery (given as Thermophila furnorum, Eov.) in Amsterdam, 

 and he says it was found in all bakehouses that he examined, and in 

 abundance, and that it had received familiar names from the bakers. 



A short time ago Mr. F. Milton, of 184, Stamford Hill, London, 

 sent me specimens of a Lepismid found in a London bakehouse. This 

 is no doubt the same as Eovelli's and Oudemans' species. He says he 

 has not found them in all bakehouses, but that in some they are known 

 as " fire brats." They congregate round the oven's mouth. 



At the Meeting of the Ent. Soc. Loud., September 2nd, 1885, 

 Mr. E. Adkin exhibited a " Lepisma " found in an iron safe at Aldgate, 

 London, and I have since ascertained from him that a bakehouse exists 

 on the other side of the party-wall against which the safe was placed. 

 No one recognised the insect, and I now suspect it was Th. furnorum. 



