c Mr. E. Newman's 



Hab. — The New Forest in Hampshire, where it was discovered in the larva state 

 by Mr. Weaver, in the summer of 1848. The specimen described is in the matchless 

 collection of Mr. Doubleday, to whom I am indebted for the loan of all the species I 

 have mentioned. 



This species may be immediately distinguished from those hitherto recorded as 

 British, as well as from such continental species as invite comparison by their some- 

 what approximate size and multiarticulate antennae. With the smaller species, which 

 having fewer joints to the antenna have been separated, and perhaps judiciously, 

 under the name Fumea, it is not needful to institute a comparison. The undermen- 

 tioned species may be advantageously compared. 



1. Penthophora nigricans of Curtis, the connexion of which with Germar's genus 



Penthophora is by no means manifest : in his illustration of the genus I 

 fear Mr. Curtis may have taken his anatomical details from Penthophora 

 Morio, the insect he cites as the type, since I find no such palpus in the male 

 of Psyche nigricans. 



2. Psyche Febretta of Fonseolombe. 



3. Psyche calvella of Ochsenheimer. 



4. Psyche gramiuella of Fischer. 



5. Psyche Stettinensis. Fuscescens,concolor,tkoraceabdominequepilosissimis; alls 



rotundatis, subcequalibus, hirsutis; abdomine subelongato pilis ad apicem trifa- 



riam directis. (Alarum latitudo "65 unc. Corporis longitudo "33 unc.) This 



description of a male, in the cabinet of Mr. Doubleday, is added under the 



impression that the name has hitherto been unpublished. 



From Penthophora nigricans, discovered by Mr. Dale in Dorsetshire, Fenella differs 



in its inferior size, in the entire absence of the thick mouse-coloured fur which clothes 



the body of that species : in its decidedly transparent and glittering wings ; in their 



scattered black and not mouse-coloured hair, and in their wanting the transverse dis- 



coidal lunule, always more or less observable in nigricans. I am indebted to Mr. 



Doubleday for the loan of living larvae of this species, and have availed myself of the 



interesting opportunity thus afforded of making very detailed drawings, as well as 



observations on their economy. 



From Psyche Febretta, or Febrettella as it has latterly been denominated, the same 

 differences distinguish it, indeed I believe that our British nigricans has been pronounc- 

 ed by Guenee, Becker, and other first-rate lepidopterists of the continent, to be identical 

 with the continental Febrettella, a decision, which in the absence of specimens of the 

 latter, I am unable either to confirm or gainsay : I may however observe, that in some 

 characters, more especially the colour of the cilia, the British specimens do not agree 

 very exactly with the continental figures. 



From Psyche calvella it differs in the black, shining and far more robust body ; in 

 the colourless membrane of its wings, the membrane in that species, although semi- 

 nude, being distinctly tinged with brown, and in the black and not brown hairs, 

 sparingly scattered over them. 



From Psyche graminella it differs in the absence of the lepidopterous clothing 

 which in that species covers the wings. It is not a little remarkable, that in two in- 

 sects so closely allied in their saccophorous larvae and general economy, as well as in 

 their apterous and apod females, should exhibit so great a discrepancy in what may be 

 called an essential characteristic of the class to which both are supposed to belong : in 

 calvella the wings only produce scattered hairs, greatly resembling those possessed by 



