THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XXXIX.] DECEMBEE, 190,6. [No. 5'^3. 



NOTES ON REARING TORTRIX PRONUBANA, Hiib. 

 By Robert Adkin, F.E.S. 



While at Eastbourne in September last I was strolling one 

 morning at about nine o'clock when I noticed a small bright- 

 looking moth fly across the road, settle for a moment on a gate- 

 post, and then disappear over a garden. Its appearance seemed 

 familiar to me ; it was certainly a Tortrix, and I came to the 

 conclusion that it was more like a specimen of T. pronubana that 

 I had seen exhibited at the Entomological Society some months 

 earlier (Proc. Ent. Soc. 1905, p. Ixiii) than any other member of 

 the genus that I could call to mind. The specimen there ex- 

 hibited was taken at Eastbourne, and the only other known 

 British example was obtained at Bognor (Ent. Mo. Mag. xli. 

 p. 276). If, therefore, my conclusion was a correct one, it 

 appeared probable that these were not merely casual visitors, 

 but that the species was established on our south coast, and only 

 wanted working for to be found. 



After a week spent in fruitless search, I chanced one morning 

 upon a euonymus hedge in a private garden, to which I had 

 managed to gain access, and obtained from it, as the result of 

 many hours close searching, seven or eight very ordinary-looking 

 small pupae, and three or four very evident Tortrix larvae, from 

 which I eventually reared both sexes of T. protmbana. The 

 species did not appear to be by any means common, but it has 

 evidently obtained a footing in this country, and having regard 

 to the abundance of what a]3pears to be a suitable food-plant on 

 many parts of our southern coast, there is good reason to hope 

 that it may become firmly established as a British species. 



The larva is green, of a shade a little lighter than the young 

 leaves of the euonymus, hairs whitish, and head of a somewhat 

 paler and yellower shade than the body and glabrous. It spins 

 together the terminal developed leaves of the euonymus, and 

 feeds upon the tender shoot enclosed between them. 



The pupa is very dark brown, almost black, from 9 mm. to 



KNTOM. — DECEMBER, 1906. 2 A 



