NOTE ON TORTRIX PICE ANA. 319 



xcram.pelina on the 12tb and another on the 15th, both at gas- 

 lamps. On the 17th a young friend brought me a full-fed 

 caterpillar of Acronycta alni, which he had taken from a haw- 

 thorn hedge in the suburbs of the city. I gave it two or three 

 inches of dead, dry thistle-stem, and it soon disappeared as it 

 excavated its puj)al-chamber amongst the pith. 



2, George Street, Chester. 



NOTE ON TORTRIX PICEANA, Linn. 

 By Kichard South, F.E.S. 



Mr. Capper's interesting note (Eiitom. 279) on the occurrence 

 of T. piceana in the New Forest induces me to communicate my 

 experience with this insect in Surrey. 



During the last four years I have at odd times most success- 

 fully worked the Surrey pine-woods and plantations, securing 

 therein many good species of Micro-Lepidoptera peculiar to the 

 Coniferse. Among others were Sericoris hifasciana, Pcedisca 

 ratzehurghiana, and P. rubiginosana, but the prize was undoubtedly 

 T. inceana, of which species I first netted a wasted male 

 example early in August, 1884. The following year (1885), whilst 

 collecting larvae of S. hifasciana, I noticed some needles of the 

 Scotch fir spun together ; and suspecting this was the work of 

 a lepidopterous larva, I proceeded to overhaul the construction, 

 with a view of making the acquaintance of the architect and 

 owner. In this, however, I only partially succeeded, for as I 

 gently knocked at the front door of the leafy tenement the 

 occupant bustled out at the back, and I had but a momentary 

 glimpse of a green, plump Tortrix larva. For the remainder of 

 that aftei'noon my interest was transferred from S. hifasciana, and 

 I put all my energy into the discovery of what might be aptly 

 termed " needle-cases," for the enterprise was hardly more satis- 

 factory than that of looking for the proverbial "needle in a bottle 

 of hay." Although I worked with a will, searching and beating 

 for fully three hours, I only obtained eight larvae, from which I 

 subsequently' bred one imago of T. piceana. What became of 

 the other seven larvae I never knew, but probably they made 

 their escape through a small hole in the muslin which covered 

 the top of the flower-pot in which I had placed them, and which 



