THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



69 



SIX MONTHS* WORK AMONG THE 

 TORTRICES AND TINEITES. 



By ALBERT H. WATERS, B.A., F.S.Sc, F.P.N.S., &c. 

 Author of " The Entomological Year," " Hints and Helps for Young Entomologists," &c, &c. 



Within the shelter of a rolled leaf, 



Drawn round with cunning skill, and deftly tied 



With silken thread, the little Tortrix lives. 



APRIL. 



Although the Micro-lepidoptera are not generally popular among young 

 naturalists, yet the natural history of these small moths is very interesting. 

 Certainly they do not make by any means so fine a show in a cabinet as their 

 bigger brethren, but he who makes collecting his sole object, and troubles 

 himself naught about the habits of the insects he impales in his camphored 

 drawers, can only by a perversion of words be termed an " Entomologist/' 

 Many, however, who would like to do something in the micros as well as the 

 macros, are deterred from attempting their study by the difficulty of naming 

 their specimens. .From letters I receive I know there are many such among 

 the readers of the Young Naturalist, and I have been asked to write a series 

 of papers on the subject of the Tortricina and Tineina. Although my time 

 is now very limited, I willingly accede to the wishes of my correspondents, 

 and will do my best to be of service to them and the other entomological 

 readers of this magazine, and if my papers should prove some slight assist- 

 ance to tyros in the study of Micro-lepidoptera, I shall feel myself amply re- 

 paid for any trouble their compilation may put me to. 



I proposed originally to term this series " Hints on naming Tortrices and 

 Tineina," and had in view the giving a full analysis of. the two groups and 

 the families and genera of which each is composed, but it was suggested to 

 me that if the papers were written in the same style as the two former series 

 of papers I contributed to this magazine, and which dealt chiefly with the 

 Macro-lepidoptera, readers would find them easier to understand and be 

 better able to profit by them. I shall, therefore, confine myself each month 

 to a description of the species which occur in that month, and inasmuch as 

 the readiest way in which a beginner can make himself acquainted with the 

 differences between the species of these little, and frequently very variable 

 moths, is by breeding them, I shall give prominence to descriptions of their 

 larvae. 



The little caterpillars of the Tortrices are as a rule either leaf-rollers or 

 feed between united leaves, some, however, are internal feeders. Those of 



