AMERICAN TORTRICIDAE. 261 



NOTES ON AMERICAN TORTRICIDAE. 



BY COLEMAN T. ROBINSON. 



The object of the present paper, and of others now in course of pre- 

 paration, is to make known the species of Tortricidae inhabiting the 

 United States. The kite Dr. Brackenridge Clemens of P]aston, Pa., 

 published descriptions of nearly one hundred species, and notices of a 

 few others are to be found in the writings of Dr. T. W. Harris, Dr. A. 

 S. Packard Jr., Dr. Asa Fitch, H. B. Moeschler, and Mr. Francis 

 Walker in the British Museum List. 



It will be perceived that the numerous families and genera into which 

 the Tortricidae have been divided by J. F. Stephens, S. Gr. Wilkinson 

 and H. T. Stainton are taken little cognizance of in these papers. 

 Dr. Clemens endeavored to follow the English authors mentioned above, 

 and even added to the number of genera they had described, but his 

 writings expressly state that it was merely for the sake of convenience, 

 and not because of a belief that they had any foundation in nature. In 

 the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 page 360, Aug. 1860, he says : "This group of insects is probably the 

 most difficult, in a systematic point of view, and the least interesting 

 family in the order of Lepidoptera. The impression I have derived 

 from the study of it induces me to believe that it is owing chiefly to the 

 artificial system by which it is at present interpreted, and which I have 

 endeavored to follow in this paper. Numerous families, or so-called 

 families, have been arbitrarily instituted on the most trivial and un- 

 tenable characters, some of which are only sexual peculiarities, while 

 ornamentation appears to be a far more important element than struc- 

 ture in the diagnoses by which they are characterized. Such an ar- 

 rangement possesses a certain amount of convenience, inasmuch as it 

 frequently enables the student or inquirer to limit the probable number 

 of genera to which an insect he may wish to classify may belong. This 

 however, is its total significance, and even in this Tespect it is often de- 

 ficient and deceptive. This is a system of convenience and not of na- 

 ture, which works on categories of structure and recognizable concep- 

 tions or ideas." 



It is to be regretted that Dr. Clemens had no access to the works of 

 continental authors, while writing upon this subject. He says in the 

 Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, Vol. v, p. 

 138, Sept. 1865 : "The only work I have that treats of the Tortricina, 



TRANS. AMER. ENT. SOC. (34) FEBRUARY, 1869. 



