LEPIDOPTERA HETEROCERA 



(TINEM) 

 FAM. GRACILARIAD/E 



by E. MEYRICK 



WITH I COLOURED PLATE 



~K/a\ I &y s th' s treatise is intended to be the first of a series dealing with the families of the Tortricina 

 7/^\ vli' an d Tituina, it will be useful to begin by explaining the usage which I propose to follow in 

 certain respects where disputable points are involved, especially in regard to questions of 

 nomenclature. Individual cases cannot be discussed, but my practice will be based on the 

 principles here laid down. 



i° The specific list following each genus is a list of actual species, not a catalogue of specific 

 descriptions. Hence a name given by an old writer may not appear at all, if it has never been identified 

 satisfactorily. For example in the present family the name meleagripennella, Hiibner, does not appear; 

 it may have been original!}' applied to a species, or a confused aggregate of several species, of the 

 genus Omix, and subsequent authors interpreted it in various senses, the species being very similar and 

 not then clearly differentiated; eventually it was dropped by general consent, and this was the sensible 

 course, as clear determination was impracticable. 



2° No notice is taken of names given to insects which were only known to the author in the 

 larval stage. Such insects have not been described at all, and the names have no authority. 



3° Names with 5o years' acknowledged use will not be suppressed in favour of unused names 

 for reasons of priority. Thus in the present family Lord Walsingham has attempted to substitute Phyllo- 

 norycier — a catalogue-name of Hiibner, never in use at all, published without any description and 

 therefore of no authority — for Lithocolletis, actually Hiibner's own name applied somewhat later, and 

 (following Zeller's adoption of the name in his monograph) with 65 years' universal acceptance in a 

 great mass of literature bj r all sorts of writers, the genus being a very large one; I do not accept the 

 alteration, which appears to propose a maximum of inconvenience for a minimum of reason. 



