August, tH'.to. ' 177 



AN IMAGO OF TORTRIX PICE AN A, L., WITH A LARVAL UEAl). 

 BY C. O. BARRETT, F.E.S. 



I have before me the most curious form of monstrosity which has 

 cit any time come under my personal notice, one of which, also, there 

 are not many records — a winged moth with the larval head. It is a 

 specimen of the male of Tortrix piceann, !>. (still a scarce moth with 

 us), and its head, which bears no resemblance to the normal head of a 

 ujoth, is shaped very much like that of the larva, yet has, in a greater 

 degree, the character of that of the curious apterous, apodous females 

 of the genus Psi/che. It is smooth, shining, horny, rather flattened, 

 with minute points of larval antennfc pointing downward from below 

 the eyelobes. The maxilla) arc formed and slightly crossed at the tips, 

 and the lips clearly indicated, yet all soldered together in one firm 

 hard mask, and immoveable. I have tried with a fine instrument to 

 move the maxilla' but with no success, except that of showing them to 

 be solid and fixed ; and so far as can be perceived there is no mouth 

 opening of any kind. The head is set well forward on a distinct neck, 

 and moveable at the will of the insect, to some small extent from side 

 to side, yet not as though of much real use, but aimlessly and with a 

 tendency toward the right side. I am satisfied that it has in some 

 degree the faculty of sight, since upon the box in which it had travelled 

 being opened it was extremely livel}' and eager to fly ; so eager to 

 escape, in fact, that fear of losing it prevented me from experimenting 

 much on its power of directing its flight. Probably this was not 

 great, since the captor tells me that it was found on the ground, having 

 been disturbed from under a fir cone. For a male of this strong and 

 lively TurtrLv, so fond of the higher branches of the fir trees, this 

 indicated some degree of disablement, yet, with the exception of the 

 head, it is in ordinary and ])erfect condition. 



The moth was secured in a fir wood in Surrey by my friend Mr. 

 A. Dennis, who prom])tly packed it up, alive and unpinned, and for- 

 warded it to me For this, and particularly for the opportunity of 

 seeing it alive, I am greatly indebted to him. 



Nunhead : June 2Uh, 1895. 



[A List of recorded cases of (his class of monstrosity, with peiieralizatioiis 

 thereon, was given by tlic late Dr. Ilagen in a paper, entitled, " Schnielterlinge niit 

 Kaupenkopf und ahnliche IVIissbildungen," jiublislied in the Stettiner Entomol. 

 Zeitung for 1872, pp. 388-102. Ho enumerated 16 instances, including two Beetles 

 and a Syrphus. Some additional instances were noted by the late Prof. Westwood 

 in a paper " On some unusual monstrous insects," Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1879, 

 pp. 221-2-28, pi. Tii. I tliiiik a few further records hare been made since then. — 

 R. McLaculak]. 



