630 



AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY 



keeping it from blowing away. The overwintering larvae are half- 

 grown. When full-grown some transform in the heads, but many 

 go down and bore in the stems and transform there. 



Cosmopteryx. — "The little moths belonging to the genus Cos- 

 mopteryx are probably familiar to anyone who has collected and ob- 

 served insects in nature. Who has not occasionally on a warm mid- 

 simimer day met with a slender little streak of gold and silver sitting 

 in the sunshine on a leaf in a protected comer and twirling its long 

 white-tipped antennas in graceful motions If, when examined more 

 closely, it is found to be a smooth shining little moth, brown with 

 silvery lines on palpi and antennae, and with a striking broad golden 



/ . ll.(UUBHOl.a.EKti 



Fig. 772. — Homaledra sabalella: larva, pupa, adult, and part of injured leaf. 

 (From the Author's Report for 1879.) 



or orange fascia across the outer half of the wing, bordered on both 

 sides by bright metallic scales, then you have a Cosmopteryx." 



"The larvee are leaf-miners, and the mines are easily distinguished 

 from most others by the scrupulous cleanliness with which the larva 

 ejects all its frass through a hole, so that the mine remains clear 

 and white. At maturity the larva changes its color from green to a 

 vivid purple or wine-red, leaves the mine, and spins a matted flattened 

 cocoon of silk." (Busck '06). 



Among the better-known members of this family are the following : 

 Stagmatophora gleditschiceella. — The larva burrows in the thorns of 

 locust. 



Monipha ehisella. — There are several species of Mompha that 

 infest the fruit and pith of the evening primrose. The best-known of 

 these is this one. 



Psacdphora terminella. — The larva is a miner in willow-herb, 

 Epilobium. 



