BANKESIA STAINTONI. 203 



dorsi basim versus, secuncla dorsi ante medium, tertia disci pone medium ; 

 antennis distinctissime ciliatis. Exp. al. 5^-6^ lin. Head fuscous. Face 

 fuscous, mixed with whitish straw colour. Antennae pale fuscous, very 

 distinctly ciliated. Anterior wings shining, whitish straw colour, 

 delicately spotted with fuscous, and with three larger fuscous spots, 

 the most distinct at the end of the discoidal cell ; on the inner margin, 

 a little before the middle, is another almost as distinct, and the third 

 lies on the inner margin near the base of the wing ; the small spots 

 along the costa beyond the middle are particularly distinct ; cilia 

 fuscous at the base, then paler fuscous, intersected by several faint 

 dashes of whitish straw colour. Posterior wings pale grey, with a 

 faint purplish gloss ; the cilia silky pale grey. In markings this 

 perhaps comes nearest to S. inconspicuella but is distinguished at a 

 glance by the very different ground colour, by the more opaque hind- 

 wings, and by the distinctly ciliated antennae " (Stainton, Ent. Annual, 

 1868, pp. 128-129). Stainton adds: "This description had been 

 written out for M. Fologne, whilst under the impression that the 

 insect was new to science. . . . but in working at my forth- 

 coming volume, The Tineina of Southern Eiorope, when I came to the 

 description of Solenobia conspurcatella, it at once occurred to me that 

 this was my Southampton friend, and, on comparing description and 

 specimens together, this identity was at once apparent." Walsingham, 

 by comparison of British examples with Zeller's original type, has 

 arrived at a contrary opinion. 



Imago. — Anterior wings average 11mm. -13mm., shining whitish 

 straw coloured, delicately spotted w T ith fuscous, with three larger fuscous 

 spots, the most distinct at end of discoidal cell, the second on inner 

 margin a little before the middle, the third on inner margin near the 

 base ; the small spots on outer half of costa particularly distinct ; cilia 

 fuscous at base, then paler fuscous intersected by faint dashes of straw 

 colour. Posterior Avings pale grey, with a faint purplish gloss, cilia pale 

 silky grey. 



Variation. — The series in the " Stainton " (continental) collection 

 consists of : (1) Five examples labelled " Fologne, v, '61," which vary 

 from 10 , 5mm.-14mm. in wing expanse, and also vary in the size and 

 distribution of the dark fuscous spotting. (2) Two specimens and a 

 case (numbered 3,313), 12-5mm. and 14mm. in expanse quite similar 

 to the others. The series in the " Frey " collection consists of : — (1) 

 Two examples labelled " Briissel " (the larger one set exactly as those 

 in the " Stainton " collection labelled 3,313). (2) Four specimens from 

 Ajaccio, labelled " S. spec.?." The first two specimens in this series 

 are rather more thickly sprinkled with dark fuscous spots than are the 

 darkest Brussels examples, the third is so little sprinkled and the spots 

 so small that one is reminded of the palest specimens of B. alpcstrdla, 

 the fourth is intermediate, though tending to the pale ill-marked form. 

 This last appears to be almost identical with a Southampton example 

 we have. That these four all represent one species is certain from the 

 rather narrower wings and, I think, the rather more convex costa of 

 the forewings (though the first example does not show this). They 

 are very uniform, 12-5mm., in wing expanse. In spite of their varia- 

 tion we believe that they are specifically identical with our British 

 insect. In the " Stainton " British collection, are four of Swinton's 

 specimens from Southampton Water, poor as to condition, but varying 



