22 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
A NOTICE OF GELECHIA SUBDE- 
CGKTELLA AND ITS LARVA. 
BY H. T. STAINTON, F.L.S. 
{Mead before the Cambridge Entomological Society, 
March 1861.) 
On the 7th of August last, I received a 
small box from Mr. Thomas Brown, of 
Cambridge, enclosiug a dead moth. 
Mr. Brown, in his letter, stated that he 
had reared some of the insect sent from 
larvEB that fed upon the purple loose- 
strife, and wished to know what the 
insect was, and whether I wanted the 
larva. I looked at the dead insect as 
it lay in the box, and said, without a 
moment’s hesitation, that the insect was 
Laverna decorella ; on the following day 
I wrote to that effect to Mr. Brown, and 
1 inserted a notice of the fact in the ‘ In- 
telligencer’ of August 18th. 
I was certainly rather surprised at 
L. decorella occurring on Lyihrum, as 
Professor Frey had previously bred that 
species from Epilohium hirsutum, a plant 
which is a great favourite of the genus 
Laverna. 
On the 19lh of November Mr. Brown 
asked me to look again at the insect he 
had sent me, and which I had supposed 
to be L. decorella, adding, “ I have just 
been told that it is likely that they will 
prove to be Geleckia subdecurtella.” 
To this I replied that the insect had 
no doubt been thrown away, as I could 
not find it, and had set no special value 
on it, reputing it to be only L. decorella, 
though one of the first bred specimens of 
that species. 
I should have thought nothing more 
about the matter, but on the 20th of 
December I received a letter from Mr. 
Bond (the substance of which was pub- 
lished in the ‘ Intelligencer’ of the 29th 
of December). In this letter Mr. Bond 
assured me that he had compared some 
of Mr. Brown’s bred specimens with his 
own specimens of Geleckia suhdecurtella, 
and that they were undoubtedly the same 
insect. What could I say? I could not 
doubt such evidence as to the insects re- 
tained by Mr. Brown, but still I thought 
that the specimen sent to me had been 
Laverna decorella, but having thrown 
away or lost the specimen I was unable 
to prove the point which I so stoutly 
maintained. 
Probably I should always have held 
the same opinion, but unfortunately (or 
perhaps one ought to say fortunately) one 
day last mouth, whilst hunting for some 
cocoons which I had mislaid, and rum- 
maging in search thereof in all unlikely 
places, I stumbled upon a pill-box, in 
which there was a dead moth reposing 
on a couch of cotton-wool. A glance 
showed me it was the reputed Laverna 
decorella ! but a closer inspection con- 
vinced me that it was Geleckia sub- 
decurtella !! 
Here then had Mr. Brown been mis- 
led for months by an erroneous opinion, 
I had too hastily expressed without suffi- 
cient investigation. 
Geleckia subdecurlella is a scarce fen 
species, not yet known to occur on the 
Continent. I announced its occurrence 
in the ‘ Entomologist’s Annual ’ for 1859 
but I then forebore to give a detailed 
description, having only seen two speci- 
mens taken in this neighbourhood by 
Mr. Bond. I now beg to supply that 
defect. 
Expansion of the wings 6 lines. Head, 
palpi and antennae grey. Anterior wings 
iron-grey, or blueish grey, along the 
costa, whitish along the inner margin. 
