PUMBIDI. 301 



especially as having the tarsal joints reduced in number to 3, 4, 4, as 

 the typical form, and to 3, 3, 4 and 4, 4, 4 as exceptions. F. casta 

 2 has always 5, 5, 5 as the tarsal formula, and is of a greyish instead 

 of a vinous tint. 



The larval cases are even more difficult to deal with. Chapman 

 notes that " their variations in size depend chiefly on sex, the J s 

 always having the larger cases ; they depend also on the particular 

 race, but this is not by any means the same as a particular species. 

 They also depend on the material of which the cases are made. These 

 materials are usually stated to be straws of grass, and they often are 

 so, and the size of those available, makes much difference in the 

 appearance of the cases. But the cases are often made of other 

 material than grass, and I think that many of those that are confi- 

 dently taken offhand to be of grass because of their whitish colour, are 

 more often made of bits of dead culms of other plants. In some 

 instances leaves of fir are used and this by both the smallest black 

 forms and the larger pale ones. Altogether, though the differences in 

 cases are very great, I feel unable to make anything of their characters 

 for specific discriminations. " It would certainly appear from 

 Bruand's description of the case of comitella, that this species at least 

 (possibly all the species of Bruandia) has a case that presents characters 

 somewhat intermediate between those of Proutia and Fumea. He 

 notes: "Le fourreau (of comitella) est compose de petites pailles 

 placees longitudinalement, mais d'une maniere moins reguliere que 

 chez crassiorella, et entremelees de quelques petits debris d'6corce ; il 

 est a peu pres une fois plus petit que celui de crassiorella." 



The Fumeinae show distinct intermediate and transitional forms. 

 Thus the males of reticulatella and comitella not only have short 

 anterior tibial spurs, and wing- speckling of the Taleporiid type, but 

 they also possess a " cellula intrusa," characteristic more particularly 

 of the Proutiids, the Epichnopterygids, and certain other branches of 

 the higher Psychids ; crassiorella has anterior tibial spurs of length 

 intermediate between those of reticulatella and casta, but this species is 

 without the cellula intrusa except as a rare aberration (Chapman notes 

 an example with it on one forewing only and Bruand figures one in 

 his neuration of the insect), and has no Taleporiid wing-specklings, so 

 that, although less markedly typical than the long-spurred species of 

 Fumea, it is much nearer these than the short-spurred Bruandia (the 

 generic name which we would apply to include reticulatella and 

 comitella). We consider crassiorella, on account of the intermediate 

 condition of the anterior tibial spurs and the large number of antennal 

 joints, also worthy of generic rank, and propose for it the name Masonia 

 (after Dr. Mason whose generosity in allowing his specimens for study 

 may here be courteously acknowledged). This leaves in Fumea, in 

 sensu strictiore, only those species that have long anterior tibial spurs, 

 and it is in this strictly limited sense that we propose to use the 

 name. We thus get in the Fumeidi the three genera : (1) Bruandia 

 — with reticulatella as type. (2) Masonia — with crassiorella as type. 

 (8) Fumea — with casta as type. 



The scaling of the pectinations of the antennas is the most 

 important point in the classification of the Fumeids, broken only by 

 Proutia at the very bottom of the Macro -Psychids ; the character is, how- 

 ever, constant in all the Psychidae, and equally absent in Epichnoptery- 



