164 BKITISH LEPIDOPTEP.A. 



speckled with fairly large pale grey patches (especially about the dis- 

 coidal lunule), in others these are reduced to fine dots, whilst in others, 

 again, the wings are unicolorous, and there is scarcely a trace of them. 

 In the " Frey" collection, the inconspicuella from Eatisbon are almost 

 unicolorous dark grey, with the pale specklings minute and round (rarely 

 blotched as in the greater number of British examples), with the dis- 

 coidal lunule faint, and the hindwings unicolorous, yet, in their generally 

 larger size and the tendency for the forewings to be elongated, they 

 appear to be identical with the specimens captured by Bradley and Marti- 

 neau in Wyre Forest, the latter, however, having fairly abundant pale 

 grey speckling, as in the more mottled of our British examples. The 8. 

 wockii in the " Frey " and " Stainton " collections closely resemble typical 

 S. inconspicuella, but the forewings appear to be a shade Avider and the 

 colour slightly more ochreous. Hofmann says that 8. inconspicuella 

 shows " a great deal of variation in wing-neuration. Generally 

 nervures 4 and 5 spring separately from the discoidal cell, the inner 

 and outer portions of which are of equal length. This is the case in 

 eleven specimens from the neighbourhood of Eatisbon, whereas in two 

 others from the same locality these nervures spring from the same 

 point, and the inner portion of the discoidal cell is somewhat longer 

 than the outer." Hofmann further notes that Stainton informed him 

 that the Eatisbon examples agreed in every particular with those 

 obtained from near London. Boyd exhibited, at the meeting of the 

 Entomological Society of London, May 4th, 1874, a specimen of S. 

 inconspicuella taken in St. Leonard's Forest, with others of the typical 

 form, of a remarkably pale colour, which was considered to be an 

 albino aberration, but had a very different appearance from the 

 ordinary form. Barrett notes that Edleston's specimens from the 

 Brushes (Manchester), differ considerably inter se, and states that there 

 are two or three specimens in the series in which the purplish-grey 

 colouring of the nervures and reticulations is so spread over the fore- 

 wings that the pale spaces are obscured, and in one of them quite lost. 

 a. ? var. triquetrella, EdL, " Ent. Weekly Int.," v., p. 146 (18-59).— Herewith I 

 send seven males of my triquetrella (partly bred) and three females and cases. I 

 think if you will refer to Bruand's work you will satisfy yourself that these are 

 really identical with the species he describes as triquetrella .... The cases 

 are found on large millstone-grit stones on the moors (occasionally on stone walls). 

 In order to get them it is necessary to turn over these stones, as they prefer the 

 sides nearest the ground. These insects appear in the perfect state from the 1st to 

 the 20th of May, and are very active on the wing, and what is very singular in this 

 genus, one rarely gets a female. The female chrysalis is seen projecting from the 

 case — the insect is missing. What females I possess are chiefly bred. The anal 

 aperture in the female is considerably less woolly than in inconspicuella .... 

 If my insect is not the true triquetrella, depend upon it, it is a new species. 



In the above note Edleston introduced a species that he considered to 

 be the triquetrella of Bruand. In an " editorial" to this note, Stainton 

 states that he had come to the conclusion that triquetrella, Bruand = 

 inconspicuella, Sta., and adds that he cannot distinguish Edleston's 

 triquetrella (from the moors) from the same lepidopterist's inconspicuella 

 (from beech woods) , individual specimens of the former differing more 

 from one another than from inconspicuella. Stainton again refers 

 {Man., ii., p. 286) to this form in the following words: "Mr. 

 Edleston believes we have a third species occurring near Manchester, 

 the larva; under stones on the moors." Barrett refers [Ent. Mo. Mag., 

 xxxi., p. 163) one of Edleston's so-called triquetrella in the " Stainton " 



