1870:]  - 165 
REMARKS ON THE GENUS GELECHIA, AS SUB-DIVIDED BY VON 
HEINEMANN, IN HIS “SCHMETTERLINGH DEUTSCHLANDS UND 
DER SCHWEIZ,” ZWEITE ABTHEILUNG; BAND II, HEFT. I. 
BY H. T. STAINTON, F.R.S. 
Of late years, most Micro-Lepidopterists have felt uneasy at the growing un- 
wieldiness of the genus Gelechia, and have been prepared to welcome eagerly any 
feasible plan of dividing it into genera of more moderate extent. A genus of from 
two hundred to three hundred (European) species, occupying five or six drawers 
of a cabinet, becomes a nuisance, as one feels that were the species arranged 
alphabetically, they would be more easily found both in books and in the cabinet. 
It was known that Herr yon Heinemann was preparing, in his forthcoming 
volume on the Tineina of Germany and Switzerland, to break up, to a considerable 
extent, the genus Gelechia. The experiment had been tried by Herrich-Schiffer, 
in his fifth volume of his ‘‘ Schmetterlinge von Europa,” wherein he has separated 
a number of the species under the generic name of Anacampsis, and removed two 
others to form his genus Recurvaria. 
Von Heinemann has gone far further than this, for he divides our old genus 
Gelechia into no less than twenty-five genera. Fourteen of these genera, it is trues 
consist only of one, two, or at the most three species, and but six of the genera 
are more comprehensive, varying, in their capacity, from thirteen to sixty-two 
species ; and hence, if the divisions he has here indicated can really be maintained, 
a great step will have been gained in our study of these insects. 
The characters on which he has relied, when forming these genera, have been 
“the ocelli, the ramifications of veins 6—9 of the anterior wings, the point of 
origin of vein three of the posterior wings, the form of the wings, the length of the 
cilia, and the differences of the palpi;” and he says that he “believes that some 
of these genera rest on stable foundations, whereas others he does not fail to per- 
ceive shade insensibly one into the other.” 
I quote the characters of the twenty-five genera given by Herr von Heinemann, 
ennmerating under each genus the British and German species. The British 
species which have not been detected in Germany will be indicated by an asterisk. 
GELECHIA (p. 193). 
Middle joint of the palpi beneath with standing-out scales, with a longitudinal 
furrow, terminal joint thin and pointed. 
Maxillary palpi very small. 
Anterior wings narrow, posteriorly narrowed from the inner margin, with 
twelve (rarely eleven) ribs, only veins seven and eight are stalked or coincide. 
Posterior wings broader, or as broad as the anterior wings, slightly indented 
before the apex, the middle cell closed, veins three and four from the same spot 
length of the cilia less than the breadth of the posterior wings. 
The twenty-four British species referable to this genus are— 
Vilella, Hippophaélla, Ericetella, Galbanella, 
Pinguinella, *Celerella, Lentiginosella, Boreella, 
Nigra, Distinctella, Mulinella, Solutella, 
Muscosella, Sororculella, *Divisella, Longicornis, 
Cuneatella, Velocella, *Fumatella, Diffinis, 
Rhombella, Peliella, Malvella, Scalella. 
