PALjEARCTIC SPECIES OF MASONIA. 315 



15mm. Mas : Comitellae habitus necnon magnitude Seel color albo-cinereus, 

 strigis nullis, margine costaeque summo nigro-griseis : nervis ad extremitatem 

 obscurioribus. Femina larvaque ignotse (Mon. des Psychides, p. 98). 



To this Bruand adds that, in 1848, he took, on the rocks of the 

 citadel of Besanc^n, by the side of the Port-au-Bois (nord), a Psychid 

 which on emergence gave a male that appeared to be a variety of 

 B. comitella. It had the same shape but was entirely of a very pale grey, 

 almost white, unicolorous, and very shiny, with the fringe, and particu- 

 larly the top of the costa, blackish-grey. It is not reticulated, but the 

 nervures are a little darker exteriorly. He suggests that if it represent 

 a variety of B. comitella, it must be a very rare one, and that out of 50 

 examples he had bred of the latter species (between 1841 and 1846) all 

 had been reticulated, nor was there one with the ground colour ap- 

 proaching it in pallor. The figure of Bruand (fig. 71) is, as usual with 

 the members of this group, a very bad one. 



Masonia subflavella, Milliere. — Description*. Fumea subflavella. Les 

 ailes de subflavella sont mediocrement allongees : 12mm., arrondies au bord externe, 

 d'un fuligineux clair, et souvent roussatre, couleur non due a la vetuste de l'insecte 

 puisqu'il la possede des le jour de son eclosion. La tete est fort petite ; cependant 

 les antennes me semblent plus developpees que chez les autres Fumea, ses voisines. 

 Ces antennes, la tete et le corps ont la couleur blonde les quatre ailes. La 2 ne 

 parait se distinguer en rien des roboricolella et comitella. Pourtant si la chenille et 

 le i de subflavella different des especes congeneres precitees, il est a supposer que 

 la ? s'en eloigne par certains caracteres reels, mais difficiles a saisir (Milliere, 

 Ann. Ent. Soc. Belg., xx., p. 63, pi. L, figs. 5-7). 



Milliere notes the larva as related to roboricolella, Brd., and comi- 

 tella, Brd., being separated from the former by the pale yellow colour 

 and by the black bands of the first three segments. It is distinguished 

 from the latter by the vinous colour of segments 4-12, and by the 

 absence of the black dots on the anterior segments. The larvae of 

 subflavella is therefore bright yellow anteriorly (thoracic segments), of 

 a distinct vinous posteriorly (abdominal segments). The first three 

 segments are corneous, shiny, and marked with a triple black band 

 which is only interrupted at the incision ; the anal segment also 

 carries a very small corneous plate. The larva hybernates, fixed to a 

 wall or tree-trunk, commences to feed again in March, and by the end 

 of April has spun up for pupation. The case is covered with short 

 irregular straws (figure shows it as a Fumeid case with straws some- 

 what expanding at end from which imago emerges). The imagines 

 appear at the commencement of June and continue to do so for fifteen 

 or twenty days. The ? comes out of its case, when copulation takes 

 place, after which the insect lays its eggs in the case, and then falls 

 down and dies at once. The $ approaches roboricolella, Brd., for 

 shape, and comitella for colour, but it is paler " et tire sur le blond." 

 It flies in the neighbourhood of Cannes ; the cases also abundant at 

 San-Bemo ; also observed at Bordighera, Menton and Monaco. 

 Chapman says: "This species is very close to crassiorella ; occurring, 

 however, as it does in the same regions with the latter, its definite 

 difference in coloration and its recognition by Milliere (who must have 

 been familiar with both forms) as a distinct species, are strong points 

 in favour of its being really distinct. In addition to this it has a 



* Milliere gives an earlier but less satisfactory description in the Cat. Lep. 

 des Alpcs-Maritimes, p. 305 (p. 105 in Ann. de la Soc. Sci. Nat. Arts et Belles-lettres 

 de Cannes, 1875). 



