from Wanstead.
Of the 172 species of Tortricoidea, (Cochylidae (35) and Tortricidae (36))
recorded from the Forest, only 49 have been reported recently. It would be quite
wrong to attribute this deficit to pollution, over-collecting or mismanagement of
the environment. The answer lies in the excellent Thurnall, who worked the
Forest so assiduously from his house in Stratford without the aid of a light-trap.
There is no reason to suppose that a modern collector of Thurnall's calibre
would record fewer species than he did.
Interesting Cochylidae include Aethes piercei which Thurnall found in
marshy ground between High Beach and the Robin Hood; it had previously
been taken in 1866 by E. G. Meek (1867) in a marshy hollow near Loughton.
The first British specimens of Commophila aeneana were recorded from the
Forest. The early text-books give Epping as a locality for Cochylis flaviciliana,
but it has not been recorded since from the county. In the Tortricinae, three
species of Acleris deserve mention. The very rare A. umbrana used to be found
in the Forest until about 1890. A. maccana, a northern species, was supposed to
have been taken in October, 1824 and the specimen was figured by Humphreys
& Westwood (1845); all subsequent authorities have been suspicious of the
record but none has been able to disprove it. The Forest was formerly noted as a
locality for A. cristana and the moth still occurs sparingly.
I shall now give an example of how a "lost" species can be rediscovered if
the search is carefully planned. On the 26th of June, 1892, Thurnall took
specimens of Dichrorampha sylvicolana amongst Sneezewort on marshy ground
near Loughton. The species was new to Britain and in the next five years he
captured and reared further specimens. Then his locality was drained for
building development and there was no further record from Essex: it was
assumed the moth was extinct in the county. To test this supposition, I obtained
a list of the stands of the foodplant from the E.F.C.C. After studying the rather
unusual habits of the moth at a known locality in Sussex, I looked for it in
Epping Forest. At the second site visited I took a moth, the first for 80 years.
Cydia leguminana used to be taken in small numbers between 1861 and 1890;
its larva feeds in the burrs on the trunks of old elms and possibly other trees.
Might not this species, too, be found again if the quest was planned? The only
record for Pammene ochsenheimeriana is of a specimen captured at Waltham
Cross by the young son of W. C. Boyd on the 1st of May, 1893. The beautiful
Epiblema incarnatana used to be taken at Fairmead Bottom in the last century
and was once reared by W. Machin; according to Barrett (1907), the Essex
specimens were "brilliant pink and almost as large as E. roborana". Thurnall
to his surprise once took several Griselda stagnana in a clearing. Doubleday and
Machin both recorded Hedya atropunctana in the Forest — another improbable
but apparently authentic record. Thurnall used to rear Olethreutes bifasciana
from the flowers of a Scots pine at Wanstead Park; there is only one other Essex
record.
The Pyralidae (38) are patchily recorded. Rare species include Crambus
hamella which was stated to occur at Epping by Stephens (1834). The attractive
Pyrausta nigrata has not been recorded since the time of Doubleday, nor
36