Pterophoridae 
Genus PLODXA Guenee 
(i) Plodia interpunctella Hiibner. (The Indian-meal Moth.) 
Syn. zece Fitch. 
The larva of this moth has a propensity to feed upon almost 
anything edible which comes in its way. It feeds upon Indian 
meal with particular avid¬ 
ity, but does not disdain 
grain of any kind, whole 
or ground. It breeds in 
all sorts of dried fruits 
and vegetables. It eats 
English walnuts, is said 
to invade beehives, and is 
known at times to dam¬ 
age herbariums and to 
attack collections of dried 
insects. There is nothing 
which seems to come 
amiss to its appetite, and 
it is, when established in a house or store-room, a veritable nui¬ 
sance. There are, according to the temperature of the building 
which it inhabits, from four to seven generations a year, and the 
reader cf these lines will do well to remember that if the thing 
has establis ’ itself under his roof it will require industry, pa¬ 
tience, and great regard to cleanliness and order to get rid of it. 
~h c 
Fig. 236. —P. interpunctella. 
pupa; c, larva; d, front view of head of larva; 
e, lateral view of segment of larva. All figures 
enlarged. (After Chittenden, “Bull. U. S. 
Dept. Agric.,”New Ser., No. 4, p. 119.) 
FAMILY PTEROPHORID/E 
“ Nature never did betray 
The breast that loved her; ’t is her privilege, 
Through all the years of this our life, to lead 
From joy to joy.” 
Wordsworth. 
The Plume-moths, as they are called, constitute a comparatively 
small family of elegant insects, in which the wings are divided 
in such a manner as to suggest feathers. The hind wings are 
generally trifid, sometimes quadrifid; the fore wings are.gener¬ 
ally bifid, sometimes trifid. The larvae are slow in movement, 
clumsy m appearance, and live on the surface of leaves. They 
4i5 
