Pteroporidaeh 
are generally hairy. The pupae are very remarkable, being soft 
and hairy like the caterpillars, and attached in pendant position 
by the cremaster, very much as the chrysalids of some butterflies, 
though a few have rudimentary cocoons in the form of strands 
of silk thrown about them. There are six genera and about 
sixty species of Plume-moths known to occur in the United 
States. We can take space to represent only one of these 
species. 
Genus OXYPTILUS Zeller 
V. 
(i) Oxyptilus periscelidactylus Fitch. (The Grape-vine 
Plume.) 
An exceedingly readable and very interesting account of the 
habits of this insect, which is universally distributed over the 
whole Appalachian subregion, is 
given by the late Professor Riley 
in the “Fourth Missouri Report.” 
The moths may generally be found 
in vineyards and about grape-vines, 
when they are beginning to put out 
their leaves. The eggs are laid on 
the branches before they begin to 
blossom, and about the time the 
third bunch of grapes on a given 
shoot is beginning to mature, it will 
be found that the terminal leaves 
have been drawn together with a 
few strands of silk, and in the tan¬ 
gle thus prepared, under cover from 
heat and rain, will be found the curi¬ 
ous little caterpillars of the Plume- 
moth. The accompanying cut, taken 
from the paper of Professor Riley to 
which allusion has been made, will 
serve to tell the story better than can 
be done in brief compass by words. 
The damage done by the insects is not usually very great, and 
it is an easy matter for the vine-grower, when he discovers the 
leaves drawn together in the way pointed out, to pluck off the 
end of the shoot and destroy the insects. 
416 
Fig. 237.—The Grape-vine 
Plume, a, iarvae; b, pupa; c, en¬ 
larged view of process on back of 
pupa; d, moth ; e , lateral view of 
segment of larva. (After Riley.) 
