80 r^P"i' 



LITA INSTABILELLA, D&r,., AND ITS NEAREST BRITISH ALLIES. 



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



Our knowledge of the group of Oelechice, including O. insta- 

 hilella, Dgl., and its allies, whicli belong to the well-accepted genus 

 Lita, Tr., has long been in confusion, but much new information 

 acquired by different workers has now become available, and, after 

 careful study and comparison of types, the complicated synonymy 

 may be cleared up. The process by which the following deductions 

 have been arrived at, and the evidence on which they are founded, will 

 be more easily followed if I commence this paper by giving some at 

 least of the references under which the seven species here dealt with 

 are alluded to. Unless otherwise stated, the facts recorded concern 

 their known habits and distribution in the British Isles only. 



1. LiTA SALicoKNi^, Bering. 



Lita salicornicB, Hrg., Stetfc. Ent. Zeit., L, pp. 302—5 (1889) ; Kchn., Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., 2nd series, IV, pp. 243—8 (1893). 



= Oehchia instabilella, Stn., I. B. Lep. Tin., p. 126 {larva) (1854) ; Ent. Mo. 

 Mag., XIX, pp. 251—3 (partim) (1883) ; Shield, Prac. Hints, p. 149 (partim), p. 

 160 (partim) (1856). 



= GelecMa ocellatella, Threlfall, Ent. Mo. Mag., XV, p. 89 (1878). 



Larva — in and on leaves of Aster tripolium, V, VI, VII, VIII ; Spergularia 

 media, Salicornia herbaeea, and Suceda maritima (= Chenopodium maritimum) , 

 VII, VIII. The last two plants, being annuals, are not available as food for the 

 early broods. 



Pupee — in cocoon of silk, mixed with mud, on surface of soil,* V — IX. 



Imago — VI — IX. In Germany it has been taken from the middle of May 

 onwards. 



Broods — two or more, apparently in succession. Probably hibernates as imago, 

 though evidence is wanting.f 



Hah. : England — Dorset, T. of Wight, Sussex, Kent, Essex, 

 Durham, Lancashire ; widely distributed and locally common on the 

 sea-coast, and in salt-marshes. Germany — Erdeborn, near Eisleben, 

 in Prussian Saxony, and Artern in Thuringia, where it occurs amongst, 

 and has been bred from, Salicornia Jierhacea at inland salt-lakes. 



* Herr W. Martini, finding that his larvas in confinement spun np on the gauze over the jar, 

 and not in the soil, was led to suppose that their natural habit is to spin up above the ground, but 

 this is not the case in England, and he himself mentions it as " remarkable " that he only found 

 two pupse when searching among the food-plant in the open (S. B. Z., I. c.]. 



+ Major Hering suggests (S. E. Z., I. e.) that it hibernates as "half-grown or full-grown 

 larva," but this seems to me improbable as regards England, and unlikely anywhere. In 

 Germany it has been found on S. herbaeea only, but I scarcely see how it could hibernate "half- 

 grown," on that plant which, being an annxial, is not available as food in the spring. It would 

 surprise me to find that any one of these Litce hibernates as a " full grown " larva. 



