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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 38(3), 1984, 235
GENERAL NOTES
THE LARCH CASEBEARER, COLEOPHORA LARICELLA (HUBNER) (COLEOPHORIDAE), IN WESTERN WASHINGTON
The larch casebearer, Coleophora laricella (Hiibner), is a Palearctic moth which was first reported from the Pacific Northwest in 1957 by Denton (1958, U.S. For. Serv. Res. Note 51:1-6). Denton and Tunnock (1971, U.S.D.A. For. Pest Leaflet 96: fig. 1) mapped the species' range in the northwestern United States and adjacent parts of Canada. Since 1971, field parties from the University of Washington, Seattle, have observed larvae on western larch, Larix occidentalis Nuttall, from two localities on the east slope of the Washington Cascades Range: Chelan Co., 12.5 km SW Leavenworth, Bridge Creek Campground; and Kittitas Co., 8.8 km SE Cle Elum, Elk Heights. In March 1981, I found third instar larvae feeding on the new foliage of a European larch, L. decidua Miller in King Co., Seattle, Univ. Washington campus. Individuals were subsequently reared and voucher specimens deposited in the collection of the University of Washington College of Forest Resources. In the spring of 1981 and 1982, infestations of this moth were found on European larch at Green Lake, about four kilometers northwest of the campus.
Mr. Richard Johnsey, State Forest Entomologist, Washington Department of Natural Resources, who maintains western Washington records of pest insects, informed me that C. laricella had not been previously reported west of the Cascades in this state. How the moth crossed the Cascades (the lowest pass is 922 m) is conjectural. Prevalent winds are normally from west to east or north to south. The species may have been transported with nursery stock, or its spread westward may be natural.
I thank Dr. Robert Gara, University of Washington, and Dr. Frederick H. Rindge, American Museum of Natural History, for their encouragement and critical commentary on the manuscript.
Sanford R. Leffler, College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195.
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 38(3), 1984, 235-236
THE GESNERIACEAE AND BIGNONIACEAE AS FOOD-PLANTS OF THE LEPIDOPTERA
Robert K. Robbins and Annette Aiello in their paper, Foodplant and Oviposition Records for Panamanian Lycaenidae and Riodinidae (1982, J. Lepid. Soc, 36(2):65-75), with their single record of a gesneriad as a lepidopterous food-plant and their quotation from Ehrlich and Raven's 1964 paper, Butterflies and plants, a study in co-evolution, that plants belonging to the Gesneriaceae, Bignoniaceae and Begoniaceae are not used or are under-utilized as lepidopterous food-plants, reminded me of a recent experience.
We have in East Africa a number of indigenous Gesneriaceae, including the wild ancestor of the very popular African Violet, or Saintpaulia, as well as numerous introduced species grown as pot plants in greenhouses and open verandahs, but I have only recently obtained a record of a gesneriad being eaten by a lepidopterous larva. On two separate occasions larvae of the polyphagous sphingid, Coelonia mauritii Btlr., have been found feeding on Aeschynanthus marmoratus, an introduced cultivar from Thai-