54 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Spoitinf] of TortrLv and other Larvce. — Is there any 

 structural characteristic whereby to distinguish the larvae of 

 the Torlrices from those of allied groups ? Nothing is more 

 easy, as far as my experience goes, than to breed a Depres- 

 saria, for instance, from a larva taken for a Tortrix. If a 

 distinctly marked (spotted) larva of this group be examined, 

 say Tortrix icterana, it will be seen that the disposition of 

 the spots on the cJrd and 4lh segments is very diti'erent from 

 that of the rest. The dorsal spots, from the 5th to the 11th, 

 both inclusive, are disposed in the form of a trapezoid, the 

 narrow end foresnost. On the 3rd and 4lh segments, which 

 I suppose we must call the meso- and the raetalhorax, this 

 arrangement is altered. Here we have the upper four spots 

 following each other in a line across the segments like a 

 necklace ; after and l»elovv them come two spots, placed side 

 by side at right angles to the others. Below these, again, 

 we have (usually, i'or in some larvae the lower dots are very 

 indistinct) another dot which gives the four a somewhat 

 rhomboid form. Besides these ten spots, which are almost 

 universally present in a greater or less degree, we find tvvo 

 other rudimentary ones occupying the place taken up by 

 the legs and claspers upon the other segments. Now, what 

 I wish to know is, whether this disposition is peculiar to the 

 Tortrices, or is ii found in other and allied groups? If pe- 

 culiar, it would be a ready means of distinguishing them. 

 It would appear, from the uniformity of the arrangement of 

 these discoloured elevations, that they are disposed in strict 

 conformity to some law not yet discovered, — that in fact 

 there is some structural reason for their being so- placed. 

 Is it not a most lamentable fact that out of some three hun- 

 dred and odd Tortrices, more than two hundred should have 

 their larvae either undescribed, insufficiently described, or 

 totally unknown ? The undoubted fact that the general run 

 of so-called Entomologists are merely collectors, and not 

 students of Entomology, is, I conceive, the chief cause of 

 this deplorable state of things. When we consider how 

 much better moths are when bred than when taken, and 

 how much breeding them adds to our knowledge of their 

 economy, we are at a loss to understand how it is that this 

 somewhat disgraceful stale of things should have so long 



