New British Starfish. cix 



I neglected the opportunity of examining the point until after the article was printed. 

 I now find, notwithstanding the opinions of Guenee, Becker, &c, that the two insects 

 are evidently distinct : the male is totally different in form, the anterior wings are 

 destitute of the conspicuous discoidal lunule, and the cilia are differently coloured : 

 and the female is described as possessing, and is figured with, " les pattes courtes," 

 which is not the case with the female of nigricans : moreover, Febretta appears in the 

 perfect state at the end of August, whereas nigricans occurs in June. 



As incidental to this subject, I shall conclude by noticing a circumstance that ap- 

 pears to have escaped the observation of modern entomologists, at least in this country, 

 and showing that an apparently common insect still remains unknown. Towards the 

 end of May last, in searching for the larvae of Psyche nitidella, which abound in the 

 neighbourhood of Camberwell, I observed on some old palings a quantity of oval 

 green larva-cases, resembling small specimens of Turbo littoralis ; they were in con- 

 stant motion, which called my attention to them, and I secured several dozens in the 

 hope of ascertaining the species to which they belonged ; in this I was disappointed, 

 for the whole of them changed about the middle of July, and proved to be the females 

 of a new species (at least to us) of Taleporia ? closely resembling, but not identical 

 with T. Tabulella, before alluded to, and figured by Bruand in the ' Annales de la 

 Soc. Ent. de France,' 2nd series, vol. ii. t. 6, f. E. under the name of Solenobia clathrella. 

 The insect so closely resembles the figs. 17, 18 and 19, in Plate 15, vol.iii. of Keaumur, 

 that I believe it to be identical, and propose to call it T. Ferchaultella, after one of 

 that celebrated writer's names : it is, however, somewhat more attenuated posteriorly 

 than in the figures, but that form might have escaped notice at the time they were 

 executed. In colour the living insect was dull ochreous, annulated with brown ; but 

 in the dried specimens wholly of the latter colour, and the length of the largest speci- 

 men is scarcely two lines. 



Bruand's figure of the male of his insect so nearly resembles a Psyche that it is 

 difficult to distinguish it from one of that genus ; and amongst my series of Psyche 

 nitidella, taken at the spot where I found the larvae of the insect now under consider- 

 ation, I possess two remarkable and small specimens, evidently distinct from nitidella, 

 and resembling the figure above referred to ; so that in the absence of better informa- 

 tion I am induced to assume them to be the males of T. ? Ferchaultella, a point I hope 

 to clear up another season, and therefore remain silent for the present. 



James Francis Stephens. 

 Eltham Cottage, Foxley Road, Brixton, 

 Sep. 11, 1850. 



Art. X.— Description of a New British Starfish of the genus Ophiocoma. By the 

 Rev. James Smith. 



I beg to send you a drawing and description of a species of Ophiocoma, taken in 

 April of this year, off that fine promontory in the Moray Firth, which is known by the 

 name of Gamrie Head. These have been communicated to me by the Rev. George 

 Harris, assistant to Mr. Wilson, minister of Gamrie. Mr. Harris is one of the very 



