SUPERFAMILY GELECHOIDEA 165 



Recurvaria 



This is a genus of minute moths whose larvae feed from 

 shelters of various sorts. A few species are leaf miners; 

 and these few show considerable diversity of habits. They 

 infest both coniferous and deciduous shrubs and trees. In 

 long-leaved conifers, like pines, the larvae work within the 

 needles; in short-leaved ones, like arborvitae, they mine 

 the leaf spray as a whole. 



The pine leaf-miner of the Rocky Mountains, R. pinella, 

 has been reported upon by Gillette (1922), from whose 

 account we quote as follows: 



It was easy to notice the brown foliage of the yellow pines at a 

 distance of at least two miles. Upon examining the needles it 

 was discovered that they were being mined by some small lepi- 

 dopterous larva, which was present in very large numbers. The 

 larvae usually enters the needle beyond the middle, making a 

 very small hole. It feeds upon the pulpy interior until fully grown, 

 when the needle may be almost completely mined. It then re- 

 turns to a point just a little below the entrance and the exit aper- 

 tures are closed with silk, the latter in a manner to direct the 

 chrysalis out of this opening as it wriggles to it when the moth is 

 ready to emerge. The chrysalis stage is passed within the mined 

 needle near the bottom of the burrow. 



The spruce leaf-miner, R. picaella, according to Gillette 

 (1922), as already mentioned in Chapter II (p. 37) simi- 

 larly mines the Colorado blue spruce, but differs in its min- 

 ing habits as follows : 



Unlike R. pinella, this species enlarges the entrance puncture 

 and uses it mainly for the escape of the moth, pupation always 

 being in the mined needles. R. pinella always makes its exit 

 opening near to but a little below the entrance puncture and 

 neither of these openings are very near the tip of the needle, while 

 in this species, the entrance and exit opening is seldom more than 

 one-eighth of an inch below the point of the needle. 



