222 [October, 



NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OP EVETRIA {RETINIA) 



iSYLVEiSTRANA, Cubt., 



WITH DESCRIPTIONS OP THE LARVA AND PUPA. 



BY EUSTACE R. BANKBS, M.A., F.E.S. 



My attempts to study the larva of Olethreutes bifasciana, TIw., 

 led me to form a close acquaintance with that of Evetria sijlvestrana, 

 Curt., for both species were, more than once, found feeding together 

 at the same time, although, on the whole, the former is rather an 

 earlier species than the latter. The following description of the full- 

 fed larva of E. sylvestrana was made on June 27th from an individual 

 found among the male catkins of Finus pinaster, in the Isle of 

 Purbeck, Dorset, on June 25th, 1902. The clusters of these catkins 

 collected on that date also yielded another full-fed larva, identical 

 with the one under notice, as well as a freshly-formed pupa, of E. 



sylvestrana. 



LARVA. 



Length, when moderately extended, 7 mm. Greatest breadth, 1'25 mm. 



Head highly polished, brownish-black, rather flattened, and conspicuously nar- 

 rower than the prothorax, into which it is partially retractile ; ocelli black, polished. 

 Prothorax markedly narrower than the mesothorax and following segments, and 

 bearing a russet-brown polished plate, which has tlic margins broadly blackish, and 

 is bisected by a paler line of the ground-colour. The thorax and abdomen together 

 form a rather short and stout mass, which, however, tapers abruptly towards the 

 Jiead at the prothorax, and more gradually towards the anal extremity : this mass 

 is smooth but lustreless, watery dirty chocolate-brown, with a purplish bloom, like 

 that of a ripe plum, and somewhat tinged with dirty ochreous both anteriorly and 

 posteriorly. Segmental divisions well defined ; the interstices, when exposed to 

 view, are seen to be paler than the ground-colour. Anal plate so inconspicuous 

 tliat it at first appears to be absent ; it is dull, concolorous with the preceding seg- 

 ment, that is, watery ochreous chocolate-brown, minutely speckled with black, and 

 with several rather short golden-brown hairs. Tubercles and spiracles concolorous 

 with the ground-colour, but so extremely minute as to be hardly discernible even 

 under a strong hand-lens. Hairs golden-brown, inconspicuous, and mostly very 

 short, those on the anal segment being rather longer than the rest. Ventral sur- 

 face, with prolegs, watery dirty oclireous-chocolate, paler and more ochreous than 

 the dorsal surface. Legs highly polished, externally blackish-brown with whitish 

 bars, internally paler. 



Eight larvae, full-fed or nearly so, of E. sylvestrana were found in clusters of 

 male catkins of Pinus pinaster collected in the Isle of Purbeck on June 28th, 1902, 

 and proved precisely identical with the one described above, except that two of 

 them were rather paler than the rest, being watery dirty chocolate-ochreous instead 

 of watery dirty chocolate-brown. In the paler individuals of the male sex, the 

 embryo testes are discernible, through the back of the 5th abdominal segment, as 

 small and inconspicuous ill-defined dai'ker spots. 



