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On the Occurrence of Tortrix pronubana, Hb., in Britain. 



By Robert Adkin, F.E.S. Read January iot/1, 1907. 



At the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, held on 

 November 15th, 1905, Mr Selwyn Image exhibited a specimen of a 

 Tortrix which had been taken by Mr. Harold Cooper in his drawing- 

 room at Eastbourne at either the end of September or the beginning 

 of October that year. It was identified as a male Tortrix pronubana, 

 Hb. (" Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond.," 1905, p. lxiii), and it appears 

 to be the first example of the species taken in Britain. 



A second specimen was taken a couple of weeks later by Mr. W. H. 

 B. Fletcher, who captured a small moth in his garden at Bognor, at 

 about 10 a.m. on Monday, October 23rd, 1905 — the weather being 

 bright and sunny at the time — which also proved to be a male T. 

 pronubana (" Ent. Mo. Mag.," xli, p. 276). 



In a list of " The Micro- Lepidoptera of Guernsey," by W. A. Luff, 

 published in 1898, T. pronubana is included (" Entom.,"xxxii, p. 264), 

 presumably on the authority of the Rev. Frank E. Lowe, who, in an 

 account of his experiences of the species in its various stages, which 

 he published in 1900, says : " In 1898 I was able to record the 

 appearance, in Guernsey, of Tortrix pronubana, which had hitherto, I 

 think, been known only as a continental species " ("Ent. Rec," xii, 

 pp. 316, 317). This appears to suggest that at that time it was an 

 addition to the fauna of that island ; at any rate it was not noticed 

 there before that date (" Ent. Mo. Mag.," xlii, p. 42). In the course 

 of his remarks he expresses the opinion that it would probably be 

 found to occur on the Euonymus hedges of the south of England, if 

 looked for. 



Although the foregoing was common knowledge, I must confess 

 that I had no thought of T. pronubana in my mind when I went to 

 Eastbourne on September 1st, 1906, with a view to spending a short 

 holiday ; but on Sunday, the 9th, while taking an after-breakfast 

 stroll and enjoying the morning sunshine, my attention was attracted 

 by a small, brilliantly-coloured moth, which flew heavily across the 

 road. The peculiarity of its flight and the brightness of its appear- 

 ance on the wing were so marked that I followed it for some little 

 distance, when it alighted on the gate-post of a garden, where I 

 obtained a full view of its upper wings, which, however, did not at all 

 account for its bright appearance while flying. Unfortunately, I had 

 no pill-box in my pocket, and while searching for some receptacle in 



