STJPERFAMILY TINEOIDEA 103 



jet. The antennae and legs are white, with a golden sheen. 

 The thorax and fore wings are white and the hind wings are 

 blackish ; the fore wings are marked with a golden streak and 

 golden spot, both narrowly edged with black; also, with a 

 black spot. And the white fringing marginal scales are 

 black-tipped. Other scales on the wings are tipped with 

 silver and bronze. The wing expanse is about a third of an 

 inch. 



We quote Busck's account of the habits of the species, 

 as follows: 



Food-plant: Smilax glauca, and S. rotundifolia. 



The eggs, which are laid on the underside of a leaf singly, but 

 often 2 to 5 on one leaf, are oval, glistening white and very large 

 in proportion to the moth. 



The young larva eats into the leaf, forming a short, narrow, 

 serpentine track, which soon broadens out in a large irregular 

 upper blotch mine, often entirely obliterating the early part of 

 the mine. The mines show reddish brown on the upper side of 

 the leaf and contrast very conspicuously with the dark-green 

 foliage. The black frass is distributed irregularly in the mine, 

 the inside of which is a dirty domicile for such a dainty creature 

 to issue from. The larva is, when full grown, 5.5 mm. long monili- 

 form, somewhat flattened and tapering backwards; first thoracic 

 segments the broadest, nearly twice as wide as the head. Head 

 light brown, body dark, glossy-greenish with two longitudinal 

 black spots on first thoracic segment; and legs normal. Often 

 two to five larvae are found within a common large mine. 



When fully grown the larva quits the mine through a moon- 

 shaped cut in the upper epidermis and spins a beautiful glistening 

 white bridgework, consisting of two paralel broad flat silken bands 

 each about 10 mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide, connected at the 

 middle, under which the spindle-shaped snow-white cocoon proper 

 is made. 



Several overlapping generations are found during the summer in 

 this locality, the moth issuing from the middle of June to late in 

 September. The insect over- winters as imago. 



