SUPERFAMILY TINEOIDEA 107 



found on the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves of cotton. 

 They are described as very small, barely discernable to the 

 naked eye, and pale straw-colored with a reticulate system 

 of smoky mottlings. They are projectile-shaped with about 

 ten longitudinal ridges and intervening grooves and are 

 placed upright on their larger ends. 



The larva. The larvae as a rule bore directly into the 

 leaf tissue at the point of attachment of the egg. They move 

 to the upper layer of the parenchyma and there tunnel out 

 narrow serpentine channels. In form they are more or less 

 cylindrical, tapering slightly toward the head and tail, with 

 moderate intersegmental incisions. The head is not particu- 

 larly elongate or flattened. The front extends about two- 

 thirds of the way to the vertex while the adfrontal pieces 

 reach it. The thoracic legs are present and segmented. 

 The prolegs which occur on segments 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 of the 

 abdomen are slender and rather long. The well-developed 

 uniordinal crochets are in two transverse bands on the 

 ventral prolegs and in single transverse rows on the anal 

 ones. While they continue to mine the larvae are smooth 

 but when they become external feeders they are rough as 

 though shagreened and are possessed of wart-like tubercles, 

 bearing hairs. 



When the larvae emerge and feed on the outside of the 

 leaves they skeletonize them. Eating away one cuticle and 

 most of the soft interior tissue, they leave the other cuticle 

 and the fibrovascular system intact. Before each moult 

 that they undergo on the outside of the leaves, they spin 

 special moulting cocoons (see pi. 1, fig. 2). When there are 

 two external moults the second cocoon slightly exceeds the 

 first in diameter. They have the form of more or less circu- 

 lar, flat webs spun upon the leaves somewhat less in diam- 

 eter than the larvae are in length. The larvae therefore 

 assume a curled or looped position beneath them. In 

 about a day after retiring below them the larvae emerge 



