TORTRIX DONELANA. 255 



Schaffer's figure be correct, we may have here an insect so rare on the 



Continent as to liave escaped observation as a pine-feeder (no mention what- 

 ever is made of it in Kaltenbach's * Pflanzenfeinde ' or Ratzeburg's ' Forst- 

 Insekten '), but which, imported to the West of Ireland, found there so 

 favourable an environment as to become a dominant member of the insect 

 fauna. The fact that all the modern fir-trees of Ireland have been im- 

 ported (Moore and More, ' Cybele Hibernica,' p. 151) makes the importation 

 of the insect highly probable. 



On the other hand, may it be possible that we have had lately developed 

 in our islands a really new species, an offshoot of T. viburnana, which for 

 some unknown reason has changed its food-plant ? If this view be accepted, 

 we must give up the identification of T. donelana with Herrich-Schaffer's 

 figure. 



Mr. Adkin has been good enough to lend me a pair of this 

 insect, which he bred from a larva and pupa received from Ireland 

 in the early part of July this year. Examination of these speci- 

 mens, and careful comparison with a long series of Tortrix 

 viburnana, enables me to support Mr. Barrett's opinion that 

 donelana is. not separable from T. viburnana. 



It is stated that donelana varies in the marking of the fore 

 wings, and one of Mr. Carpenter's specimens resembles ordinary 

 viburnana so closely that it would probably be difficult to point 

 out any material difference. The abdomen of the type of done- 

 lana is described as " short, hardly reaching the anal angle of the 

 hind wing." As this is the only portion of the description which 

 is italicised, some importance would appear to be attached to it ; 

 but in the male specimen bred by Mr. Adkin the abdomen is quite 

 of the length usual in T. viburnana, i. e., it extends a little beyond 

 the anal angle. The anal tuft of donelana is said to be light 

 yellow; some specimens of viburnana have the tuft yellowish, 

 others greyish, and in others again it is brownish. With regard 

 to the marking on fore wing, Mr. Adkin's male example of 

 donelana differs from the type, as described and figured by 

 Mr. Carpenter, in having a basal patch and broad internally 

 angulated marginal band of the same colour as the central fascia; 

 I have a specimen of viburnana, taken on the Yorkshire moors, 

 which is marked very much in the same wa}-. 



Mr. Carpenter refers to the male only. The female example 

 bred by Mr. Adkin from the larva, adverted to, is small, but I 

 should have pronounced it to be a female T. viburnana, if it had 

 been sent to me for identification ; with the exception of its lesser 

 size, it is almost identical with a specimen I have from the 

 Warren at Folkestone. 



Some entomologists would seem to consider this fir-feeding 

 Tortrix identical with T. steineriana, Hiib., var. dohrniana, H.-S., 

 but whether it is so or not I cannot say, as I have not the neces- 

 sary material at hand to euiible me to form an opinion. I certainly 

 have a single continental specimen ticketed dohrniana, but tiiis 



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