TINEINA. 



We are now at the last of the larger groups, and the last but 

 one of the entire Lepidopterous fauna, after the arrangement of 

 the late H. T. Stainton. It was to this group that he gave 

 much of his attention, and he worked out many of the genera 

 and species very thoroughly. The sequence of no two authors 

 is identical, so, failing any generally accepted one, we prefer to 

 follow that adopted in Stainton's " Manual." Very few of our 

 local entomologists -have collected the Ti^steina. Those who 

 have done so consider it a most interesting group. It is also 

 that in which new discoveries are most likely to be made. The 

 few who have collected these in this district, have been already 

 enumerated in connection with the TortuicijSta. I cannot say 

 that I have ever collected the TiNEmA, though I have occasion- 

 ally taken a few, and have been fortunate enough to meet with 

 some of the rarer species. I have, however, had the great 

 advantage for this work of being aided by Mr. E. E. Bankes, 

 F.E.S., &c., of Corfe Castle, Dorset, who probably knows more 

 about British Lepidoptcra than any other man, and especially 

 does he thoroughly know the British TiNEiifA. Mr. Bankes 

 has not only given me all possible advice, but has most kindly 

 revised the MS,, so that I do not think anything wrong will 

 occur through my personal want of experience. 



Two or three species in this group occur in the district that 

 have scarcely been met with elsewhere in Britain. It is ex- 

 ceedingly curious how these minute creatures have found their 

 way here, to a locality hundreds, or perhaps thousands of 

 miles from any known colony of them. One insect, Acrolepia 

 betuletella, has not been recorded elsewhere than in the county 

 of Durham, though I believe a solitary example was taken by 

 Mr. Sang at Richmond in Yorkshire. Another, Lithocolletis 

 insignitella, whose entire life, in its larval and pupal stages, is 

 passed between the skins of a clover leaf, has not been taken in 

 England, except between Hartlepool and Castle Eden, where it 

 occurs in enormous numbers. A third, Harpella hracteella, a 



