62 



TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



nent, with the spinneret conspicuous and the palpi 2-jointed — the first joint 

 long with a fleshy hair at tip, the second small, spherical, and also termi- 

 nating in a fleshy hair; antenna. 1 2-jointed, the terminal joint with a bristle: 

 ocelli pale, around a dark crescent. Cervical shield flattened and not well- 

 defined. 



White when young. Mostly curved in the fruit like the larvae of Cur- 

 cnlionidcB. 



Described from many specimens. 



Two larvae are seldom found in the same seed-row, and each 

 one, on attaining full growth, consumes only the inside of from 

 fifteen to twenty seeds. Each pod contains, on an average, up- 

 wards of two hundred of these seeds, disposed in six rows, and 

 might consequently sustain a dozen larva? ; so that when, as is 

 usually the case, there are not more than two such larvae to a pod, 

 an abundance of perfect seed remains to perpetuate the plant. 

 Yet sometimes every seed will be destroyed, especially in the spe- 

 cies with smaller capsules. 



It is quite possible that the moth may, at times, introduce the 

 pollen into the stigmatic tube without consigning any of her eggs 

 to the fruit, and we should naturally expect to find some capsules 

 uninfested with her larvae. But I have this year examined hun- 

 dreds of capsules around St. Louis, and some in South Illinois, 

 and not more than four or five per cent, were uninfested. Some- 

 times every pod on the same plant had its worms, while at others 

 half the pods on a given panicle would be free of them. From 

 the very large percentage of infested pods, I conclude that ovipo- 

 sition naturally and immediately follows fertilization, unless the 

 moth be disturbed. 



When mature the larva bores a hole through the capsule, drops 

 by a web to the ground, burrows a few inches below the surface, 

 and constructs an oval cocoon of earth, lined on the inside with 

 silk. Here it doubtless rests in the larva state through the fall, 

 winter and spring months, and completes its transformations about 

 the time the Yuccas begin to bloom ; for it is a very general rule 

 with Tineidaa that when they hybernate in the preparatory state, 

 it is as larva;, the term of the chrysalis state being brief. 



The only natural enemies of the larva that I yet know of are 

 ants. These omnivorous creatures often get into the capsule and 

 devour the worm when it is about to leave, and its burrow may 

 frequently be found crowded with them. 



Though another year must roll around before the latter part of 



