SOLENOBIA LIGHENEIiLA- 173 



Linnean species cannot be overlooked although no facts are discussed. 

 Whether, however, the lichenella of Linne be identical with the 

 parthenogenetic insect of Speyer, von Siebold, Hofmann, Hamm, and 

 others, or no, we wish it to be understood that, in our description of 

 the insect, we are dealing as far as possible only with the partheno- 

 genetic form. Structurally we find no difference between the British 

 examples of this and the descriptions available of ? 8. inconspicuella 

 (vide, Ent. Rec, xi.,pp. 173-5), but it is necessary to separate an insect 

 with such distinct physiological peculiarities, and we maintain it under 

 this old name because we believe it to agree with the parthenogenetic 

 insect referred thereto by various continental authorities. 



Imago. — The female only is known. It has six well-developed legs, 

 each with two terminal hooks, glassy and transparent, with dark 

 shading at the joints. The head ventral ; the antenna? long, glassy- 

 looking, slender, with thickened base and apex, carried back at sides 

 of body. Forewings moderately developed ; prothorax narrow, ventral ; 

 mesothorax well developed frontal, with shiny, blackish-grey chitinous 

 plates ; the metathorax with a plate and very similar to the 1st abdominal 

 segment ; the latter slightly depressed, forming a sort of waist ; the 

 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th gradually increase in bulk, the 7th much 

 narrower. One might, perhaps, homologise the black ovipositor, with 

 its telescopic joints, as two segments, with another for the base. 

 Beneath the 7th abdominal there is a very striking ventral cavity, 

 more than filled with a protruding tuft of white silky hair. Each of 

 the forewings forms a conspicuous, transparent, scaleless saccule, in 

 the normal position ; the hindwings are represented by similar but 

 smaller saccules. The body is pale yellowish in colour, dorsally, how- 

 ever, each abdominal segment carries a broad, grey-brown, transverse 

 band, so that the back appears to be alternately striped (transversely) 

 with brown and yellow ; laterally, the continuation of the dark, trans- 

 verse dorsal bands is represented by many fine, short, grey-brown 

 hairs ; ventrally, these dark bands become conspicuous again. The 

 eyes consist of large dark circular plates, with many conspicuous, 

 well-developed facets. (Description made April 13th, 1899, from 

 living female directly on emergence, from a case obtained near 

 Wellington College by Hamm.) Walsingham notes that the dead 

 females from Hamm's cases are blacker than those of *S r . pineti, 

 although otherwise they are very similar. Undoubtedly, this dark 

 colour has been assumed in drying, as the living female is not at all 

 spec iai J) dark. Bacot also note nales (from Wellington College) 



as having long antenna; (? 15-18 joints) . with a tendency to become 

 thickened towards the tip (last I joints) ; the thoracic and 1st 



abdominal segments, corneous and shiny ; the skin of the abdomen 

 shiny, almost b, re dorsally, but with a few scale-like hairs (or hair- 

 i on the lateral area ; the abdomen curved ventrally ; the 

 I . ; ' i ped and fairly long ; the abdominal segments black in 



have a grey appearance along the sides where the 

 bhe wings small, movable, appear like semi-trans- 

 p'arei t, and stand out almost horizontally from the body ; 



ip itor larj stronj , and black in colour, can be protruded to a 



isiderabL d ice. De Geer <!■ cribes the females as very small, 



iking rathi : h< apod worms than Phalenes ; the 



ij and divided into segments; 



