LEPIDOPTERA 



627 



tain beetles that also feed on stored grain. The adult moth is of a 

 very light grayish-brown color, more or less spotted with black; it 

 expands about 1 2 mm. The common name is derived from the fact 

 that it has been very destructive in the province of Angoumois, 

 France. The most effective method of destroying this pest is by 

 the use of carbon bisulphide in the manner in which it is used against 

 the grain-weevils, already described. 



The pine-leaf miner, Paralechia ■pinifoliella. — It often happens 

 that the ends of the leaves of pine present a dead and brown appear- 

 ance that is due to the interior of the leaf having been eaten out. 

 This is the work of the pine-leaf miner (Fig. 768). At the right 

 season it is easy to see the long, slender larva in its snug retreat by 

 holding a leaf up to the light and looking through it ; and later the 

 pupa can be seen in the same way. Near the lower end of the tunnel 

 in each leaf there is a round hole through which the larva entered 

 the leaf and from which the adult emerges. We have found this 

 insect in several of the stouter-leaved species of pine, but never in 

 the slender leaves of the white pine. In the North it is most abundant 

 in the leaves of pitch-pine. 



The peach twig-borer, Andrsia line- 

 atclla. — This pest is generally distribut- 

 ed throughout the United States and 

 Canada, and sometimes it destroys a 

 large part of the crop in some localities. 

 The young larvae hibernate in small 

 cavities which they excavate in the 

 bark of young twigs. In the spring the 

 larvae burrow into the tender shoots; 

 the leaves of the buds unfold and then 

 wither. There are several generations 

 annually. The summer generations 

 attack both twigs and fruit. 



The solidago gall -moth, Gnorimo- 

 schema gallcBSoliddginis. — There are 

 two kinds of conspicuous galls which 

 are enlargements of the stems of 

 golden-rod; one of these is a ball-like 

 enlargement of the stem and is caused 

 by the larva of a fly, Eurosta solidaginis, 

 described in the next chapter ; the other 

 is spindle-shaped (Fig. 769) and is 

 caused by the moth named above. 

 The eggs are laid on the old plants in 

 the fall and hatch in spring. The young 

 larva crawls to a new shoot and boring down into it causes the 

 growth of the gall. The larva becomes full-grown about the middle 

 of July; then before changing to a pupa it eats a passage-way 

 through the wall of the gall at its upper end, and closes the opening 



Fig. 769. — Gall of the solidago 

 gall-moth. (After Riley.) 



