TORTRICINA. 



Tineina, than our continental neighbours. There are, perhaps, 

 several causes tending to explain this disparity : for instance, our 

 isolated position ; the absence of hedges in many parts of the 

 Continent, which in England afford food and shelter to very many 

 species ; and the tract, perhaps, more generally and evenly hunted 

 although, in this last respect, very much yet remains to be 

 done. 



Is this disparity in numbers real, or only imaginary ? Com- 

 paring these islands with the whole of Europe, the assumption 

 certainly holds good; but it is very questionable whether it 

 would continue to do so, if the Continent were divided into areas 

 of equal extent with our own, and the latter contrasted with 

 any one of those areas the difference might then not prove so 

 striking. 



In the perfect or imago state, these insects present no great 

 variety of habit to the observer ; their flight is never of long 

 duration, nor is their love of locomotion great, as they appeal- 

 merely to hover over and around the plants and trees which 

 nourished their larvae, and which again will form the nidus for 

 their future progeny. Their time of flight is chiefly confined to 

 the morning and evening, although there is no interval between, 

 in which some of the species are not to be seen on the wing 

 few fly during the night. 



They are in general numerous, especially certain species of the 

 genera Tortrix, Losotania, Pcecilochroma, Cnephasia, Sericoris, 

 and some others, which are to be met with, in the middle of 

 summer, wherever trees and herbage grow. They are to be seen 

 from March to November, but appear in May, June and July 

 in the greatest numbers. 



Their life in the imago state is of short duration, lasting only 

 a few days, in which are performed those duties necessary for 

 the continuance and conservation of the species. The eggs are 

 deposited, and the parents die. 



Of the ova, or egg- state of these creatures, very little is 

 known. This branch of the subject is open to much interesting 

 inquiry, and, when gone into, must necessarily throw consider- 

 able light on their natural history. 



The ova, so far as is ascertained, though defined in shape, are 

 usually void of sculpture and that symmetry of form observable 

 in the eggs of most of the other families in this Order. In 

 general they are flat, and laid in small masses, arranged and 

 overlapping each other, like the scales on fishes (Anticlea trima- 

 culana) ; in others they are somewhat oval, but very wrinkled 

 and flattened on their under surface, arising, most probably, 



