Taxonomic study of subfamily-Tortricinae (Lepidoptera

The common name “leaf roller” has been applied to this family owing to its larval habit of shelter building by folding or rolling leaves of the food plants. The larvae of these moths employ a wide range of feeding strategies many have the habit of leaf rolling some are gall makers root borers fruit borers flower feeders etc. (Horak and Brown 1991; Powell et al. 1998). Tortricidae has been divided into three subfamilies Tortricinae Olethreutinae and Chlidanotinae (Horak 1998). In general members of the subfamily Tortricinae tend to be polyphagous while Olethreutinae have narrower host range and hosts of Chlidanotinae are poorly known. In case of Kashmir and Ladakh 64 species of tortricid moths have been reported (Razowski 2006) although no exhaustive study has been performed and the few works that have been published offer only little information about tortricid moth diversity.