40 CATALOGUE OP MOIHS. 



TORTRICINA. 



This is a very extensive family, over three hundred species 

 being recognised as British. It has never been a popular one 

 with collectors. The insects, as a rule, are but little diversified 

 in appearance, are but dull coloured in most cases, and are 

 without any very striking style of marking. Add to this their 

 small size, for very few indeed are above an inch, and many 

 are less than half that in expanse. Where there are many 

 collectors but few study this group, here in the north of 

 England, very few indeed. I have thus but very scanty 

 records to draw upon for my account of their occurrence. I 

 have none for the north-west of Northumberland, very few for 

 the north-west of Durham. Many additional species are certain 

 to be found within our area, and additional localities for nearly 

 everything. 



The sources from which the following list is compiled are, a 

 lengthy and important list of recent captures by the late James 

 Pinlay, of Meldon, near Morpeth ; a list supplied by the late 

 J. B. Hodgkinson, of Preston, Lancashire, of species taken in 

 south-west Northumberland, but which has no localities, and 

 contains names of some species such as Eupoecethia vectisana and 

 affinitana, that could not possibly occur there ; the notes of 

 the late Wm. Backhouse, of Shotley, and the " diary " of the 

 late John Sang. There are also a few records, without 

 localities, in the Transactions of the Society from the pen of the 

 late W. Maling, of Newcastle, a few notices of local species in 

 Stephens' "Illustrations," from the late George Wailes, and a 

 few others in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, &c. These 

 are all I have had to draw upon. Mr. Gardner, who has given 

 some little attention to the group, has rendered me all the 

 assistance in his power. 



It is a very difficult group to differentiate. One writer will 

 give as a species what another considers to be two or three. 

 Some species, the "Buttons" for instance, are wonderfully 

 variable ; others are absolutely constant. No two authors 

 appear to agree as to the best method of dividing them into 



