Blastobasidae 
where it has been known from time immemorial as an enemy of 
umbelliferous plants. A full account of the insect is given by 
Riley in “Insect Life,” Vol. I, p. 94. To this the reader may 
refer. The remedy for the insect is to gather the portions of thq 
plants which have become infested, and to burn them. The in¬ 
sects, many of which conceal themselves in the stems or are hid¬ 
den in the foliage, are thus most conveniently destroyed. 
Genus SEMIOSCOPXS Hiibner 
(1) Semioscopis merricella Dyar, Plate XLVIII, Fig. 38, $. 
This is not at all an uncommon insect in western Pennsyl¬ 
vania. There are numerous specimens in the collection of the 
writer which have been taken during the past twenty yearso 
FAMILY BLASTOBASID/E 
This is a considerable family of minute moths, as representa¬ 
tive of which we have selected for illustration a species of the 
genus Holcocera, to 
which Professor Riley 
applied the specific 
name glandulella, be¬ 
cause it infests acorns. 
The Acorn-moth is an 
inquiline; that is to 
say, it takes possession 
of the remnants of the 
repast left in the acorn 
by the grub of a wee¬ 
vil, which has devel¬ 
oped within the fruit 
and forsaken its burrow in order to undergo transformation else¬ 
where. Between the weevil and the larva of the moth very little 
is left of the contents of the acorn, and farmers who expect to 
derive sustenance for their hogs from the oak-mast are often dis¬ 
appointed. The accompanying cut shows the different stages in 
the development of the larva, and also the moth. The inject is 
quite common in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. 
429 
Fig. 248.— H. glandulella. <7, acorn showing 
larva; b, acorn showing opening left for moth; c, 
enlarged view of head of larva; d , lateral view of 
segment; e, dorsal view of segment; f moth; g, 
nodule to which antenna articulates. (After Riley.) 
