214 CATALOGtTE OF MOTHS. 



312. L. insignitella, Zell. 



Lithocolletis insignitella. Eobson, Young Nat., xi., p. 54 



(1890). 

 „ ,, Meyr. Hdbk. Brit. Lep., p. 739. 



The only British locality known for this insect at present is 

 in the neighbourhood of Hartlepool. It occurs very freely on 

 the railway side from a quarter of a mile above Hart Station 

 nearly as far as Hezleden Station. It may also be found in the 

 larval stage on hedge banks and waste places between the 

 railway and the sea. In places in this district it is so common 

 that it would be easy to collect a thousand mines of the larva 

 within a radius of ten yards. Yet it does not appear to occur 

 elsewhere in Britain. The larva here feeds only on Trifolium 

 arvense,* and never appears on either Trifolium medium or 

 repens, both of which grow in the same places where i^isignitella 

 occurs. The occurrence of this minute species so far away 

 from others of its kind is not very easy to explain. Mr. Sang 

 appears to have been the first to discover this species in Britain. 

 His diary contains an entry that he took it near Hartlepool on 

 July 28th, 1861, but no detailed notice of its discovery in this 

 country was published until 1890 ! 



*I have no doubt that "arvense" is a laps, cal. for '^ pratense," 

 for Mr, Gardner tells me that the food plant in the Hartlepool district 

 is " the common red clover (?pratense)" whereas T. arvense has only 

 white or pale pink minute flowers. But, even so, Mr. Robson's statement 

 is very puzzling, for in 1890 he wrote me word that he could only find 

 the mines on T. medmm, that pratense was not common where insigni- 

 tella occurred, but that arvense was plentiful, though it had not yielded 

 a single mine ! Moreover, he described the larval habits, and added that 

 " a narrow-leaved plant like medium is therefore more convenient for it 

 than a broader 'one like pratense." When writing the above notice, 

 Mr. Robson evidently became confused as to names of the various species 

 of clover and used them incorrectly. In order to settle the point, Mr. 

 Gardner has kindly sent me specimens of the only clover upon which 

 L. insignitella has been found In the Hartlepool district ; these bear upon 

 them some mines of insignitella, and are certainly T. medium. — E. R. 

 Bankks. 



